Deaths of 65-year-old man and 4-year-old boy declared homicides in 2016

The deaths of a 65-year-old man and 4-year-old boy have been listed as 2016 homicides after autopsy results were recently released, Muscogee County coroner said Friday.

They were identified as Kirby Scott, 65, who died Aug. 1 in the emergency room at Midtown Medical Center and Nathaniel Washington-Ghant IV, 4, pronounced dead at 4:40 a.m. Sept. 23, Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan said.

Scott’s autopsy results were released Friday, and authorities received a report on the child a week ago. The two deaths push total homicides investigated by police from 23 to 25 for the year. The coroner’s list expanded from 25 to 27 homicides, with one classified by police as justified homicide and the other involuntary manslaughter.

Scott left a family function at 1028 First Ave. with a friend before they returned later in the evening. Back at the event, Kirby was involved in an altercation with a woman who started screaming. That led to other family members joining the dispute and assaulting Scott.

Results show Scott used cocaine before the assault at 10:19 p.m. July 30. His injuries included blunt-force trauma during an assault by others.

Washington-Ghant sustained an injury when he was three weeks old. He died as a result of delayed complications from traumatic brain injury. He also sustained blunt force trauma to the lower part of his body as a 3-week-old infant with non-accidental trauma.

Bryan said the child was a dwarf since the injury as an infant. He couldn’t speak and was incapacitated.

Police have been actively investigating both deaths. Police Maj. Gil Slouchick of the Bureau of Investigative Services said police need a cause of death from the medical examiner before they can make cases. As of 3 p.m. Friday, he said the autopsy report on Scott was still pending. “We sent people to that autopsy to witness it,” he said.

In the death of the 4-year-old boy, the major said police are still investigating. “I know it was a case where there was some duration between the injury and the death,” Slouchick said. “Investigators are still working that case. We have to pull medical records and all that.”

This story was originally published January 20, 2017 at 4:12 PM with the headline "Deaths of 65-year-old man and 4-year-old boy declared homicides in 2016."