Man charged with using Drano to kill baby

A 33-year-old man from the city’s Logan section was arrested yesterday and charged with murder, accused of killing a 20-month-old toddler with Drano drain cleaner.

Aaron Pace, a longtime friend of the mother’s family, was babysitting the boy, Suliaman Orrell Kirkland, on Feb. 2 when he doused a rag with Drano and rubbed it into the child’s skin, police said.

“Why did he do it? Because the child, in the defendant’s view, was uncooperative and crying, doing what 20-month-old children do,” Homicide Lt. Philip Riehl said.

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The child’s great-grandmother, Connie Kirkland, 74, called the boy “a jewel.”

“To see that he went through all this agony, I can’t understand,” she said.

Neffateria Kirkland, 24, the child’s aunt, said that Pace had told her family the boy mysteriously got hurt when he was giving him a bath.

Family members said they learned only yesterday from police about the alleged circumstances that led to the murder charge.

Several of Pace’s relatives were in the house, in the 4500 block of North 18th Street, but did not witness the alleged killing, Riehl said. Both families live on the same block.

When they discovered the injured boy, one of them called the child’s mother, who then called for medical help, Riehl said.

Rescue workers and police arrived at the house and found the boy suffering from severe chemical burns to his arms, Riehl said.

The child was rushed to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in critical condition. He died Sunday.

His mother, Quintesha Kirkland, 27, had started a new job the day before, Neffateria Kirkland said. Since then, she had been in the hospital at her baby’s bedside.

Pace, who was being held last night at Police Headquarters, often referred to himself as the boy’s godfather, Riehl said.

Connie Kirkland said her family had known Pace since he was a child.

“He was a gentleman,” she said