Woman identified as Yulia Storozhuk is accused of abusing a small child. (Screenshot: Sunny Isles Beach Police Department)
A Florida police investigator commended a witness for turning over video evidence of a mother accused of brutalizing her 3-year-old son, the officer told Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber on Thursday.
“This is an easy case from the standpoint of proof,” Detective Sgt. Javier Estevez said in the interview.
Yulia Storozhuk, 29, faces child abuse charges in Miami-Dade County after she allegedly threw and kicked her son down a hallway in an apartment building.
“It’s one of the worst things I’ve seen in 22 years as an officer,” Estevez said.
According to an arrest affidavit, Sunny Isles police responded on Monday.
A neighbor gave Ring camera footage in which Storozhuk was recorded on Sunday night grabbing the 3-year-old son with both hands, lifting him off the ground and throwing him to the floor, documents stated.
“While the victim is on the ground, defendant maliciously kicks the victim twice,” officers wrote. “Defendant then grabs the victim by the face and pushes him to the ground as the victim is attempting to get up. Defendant repeatedly kicks the victim while exiting the camera view.”
A second Ring camera showed her push the child in the chest, knocking him to the floor, police wrote.
In interacting with the victim, police noted redness on the child’s right cheek and right forehead and bruising on his right forearm and left knee. The boy had scratches on his stomach and back, and later told an officer about Storozhuk scratching him, officers wrote.
Law&Crime viewed footage in which a woman walked down the hallway and encountered a small child as she turned the corner.
She instantly became angry, growling and clenching her right fist. The woman pointed toward the direction she came — an apparent order for the boy to go in that direction. The child seemed ready to comply, but the woman shoved him to the floor. The boy cried.
Other footage showed her throwing the boy to the floor. She forced him down the hallway, kicking and shoving him the entire way.
“That was a 3-year-old boy,” Estevez told Weber. “What she did to that kid is worse than I’ve seen adults do to other adults.”
According to cops, Storozhuk admitted post-Miranda that it was her in the footage.
“Defendant discloses the reason she pushed her son was punishment for insisting on going to the playground,” officers said. “Defendant went on to say that the son was being difficult and uncooperative.”
Estevez told Weber that defendant Storozhuk had previously called the police department, appearing to have some sort of nervous breakdown. She asked for financial help for her child, he said. Officers did not find signs of abuse at the time.
The child is in the care of the Florida Department of Children and Families, Estevez said.
He suggested the abuse happened more than once, based on the child’s “tolerant” demeanor and what appeared to Estevez to be older bruising on the boy’s body, but he added that the investigation is ongoing.
Estevez said that the mother and son lived with a female roommate — all three were refugees from the war in Ukraine. Officers were skeptical of the roommate at first, but they noted that she was cooperative and the child was comfortable around her. He believes she did not know about the extensive abuse, just perhaps to the level of corporal punishment.
The boy is undergoing testing for his well-being, the investigator said. He will be placed in the proper home, but prosecutors and a judge will play a role in his future.
“But I know that he’s not going to be beat up by his mother anymore,” Estevez said.
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