D’Onya ‘Bella’ Walker died from broken ribs puncturing her organs

An autopsy found that four-year-old D’Onya “Bella” Walker was subject “to blunt force trauma sufficient to break ribs, puncture internal organs and cause massive bleeding” when she died last week, Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe revealed yesterday.

He said there were also indications of previous injuries.

“Why we have to have the indignity of a sexual assault combined with that for us to be outraged is what makes me truly upset with the Bahamian people who it’s almost as if they desire that she undergo that indignity as well,” Munroe said.

Bella, who was a resident of Major Subdivision on New Providence, was taken to Princess Margaret Hospital unresponsive around 5 p.m. on November 5.

Her death sparked widespread national outrage after it was alleged on social media that she died as a result of sexual abuse.

Munroe described the ordeal as a “distressing” national event.

“What has been personally distressing to me is, one, the nature in which we pick up information that is incorrect and spread it,” he said.

“What is most troubling to me is the pushback when correct information is given, that somehow some people believe or seem to think that our sense of outrage should be any less because a child who was subjected to great violence was not also sexually abused.

“That is a sick mindset that we really need to get out of this country because somehow, in my judgement, it undervalues the physical abuse of children. The physical abuse of children is as reprehensible as the sexual abuse of children.

“You shouldn’t do either of them and the fact that some members of the public seem to think that without the sexual abuse this is any less of an outrageous incident is personally disturbing to me.”

Munroe said Bahamians need to examine themselves as a people and take steps toward correcting the kind of socialization that resulted in Bella’s death.

He said The Bahamas, as a society, allows things to slip to the point where more people become willing to “do these types of things”.

“We have to understand that we have to stop it early or it will be like a snowball rolling downhill and getting larger and larger and larger,” the minister said.

Ostonya Walker, Bella’s mother, was charged yesterday with exposing a child to grievous harm and cruelty to children in connection with Bella’s death.

Her boyfriend, Darion Smith, 33, was charged with murder and cruelty to children.

They were not required to enter pleas to the charges when they appeared before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt, who set an early court date due to the “national concern” surrounding the matter.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/donya-bella-walker-died-from-broken-ribs-puncturing-her-organs/