A 10-year-old boy was found beaten to death in his apartment, just one day after NYPD responded to a 911 call and left

© Noam Galai/Getty ImagesNYPD officers wear face masks in Kips Bay on December 07, 2020 in New York City. Noam Galai/Getty Images

• A 34-year-old man has been charged in the beating death of a 10-year-old boy.
• An autopsy revealed that Ayden Wolfe died of battered child syndrome, covered with bruises and cuts.
• The NYPD is investigating whether officers who visited one day earlier could have done more.
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A New York City man has been charged with beating a 10-year-old boy to death, and the police department is investigating whether its officers could have done more to prevent the grisly killing.

Ayden Wolfe's body was found on March 6, naked and "covered from head to toe with bruises and abrasions," according to a criminal complaint. The child also had multiple broken ribs, and a lacerated spleen, liver, kidney, and renal vein, and the medical examiner ruled that the cause of Ayden's death was battered child syndrome.

Ryan Cato, 34, was arrested March 7 and charged with second-degree murder, according to court documents. Cato was the boyfriend of Ayden's mother - the three of them lived together in an apartment in Harlem, according to the complaint.

But a number of media outlets reported that just one day before Ayden's body was found, on March 5, NYPD officers had responded to a 911 call at the apartment building but left shortly afterward. The New York Times reported that a neighbor had called for help after hearing banging and screaming in a nearby apartment, though the caller wasn't sure which apartment the noise was coming from.

The Times reported that two officers listened at a few doors on the fourth floor and checked the hall and stairwell, but left 12 minutes later after not hearing anything. The officers reportedly did not knock on any of the eight apartment doors on that floor, and didn't receive an answer when they tried to call back the neighbor who had dialed 911.

© Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty ImagesPolice Commissioner Dermot Shea attends NYPD press briefing on police involved shooting and on the death of a child at police Headquarters. Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

According to the criminal complaint, a neighbor later told police they had heard "banging and thuds against the wall" for about 40 minutes on March 5, along with a male voice yelling, "DO YOU WANT ME TO BEAT YOUR A- TOO?" The neighbor also heard a female voice yelling, "STOP," and a "soft voice morning in pain." It's unclear if that neighbor was the same one who called 911.

The neighbor also told a detective that the person again heard banging and thuds on the morning of March 6, accompanied by the same male voice yelling, "YOU THOUGHT YESTERDAY WAS SOMETHING? YOU THINK THIS S- IS A GAME?" The neighbor said they, again, heard faint moaning in response.

The NYPD commissioner, Dermot Shea, told media that the police department will investigate the officers' actions from their visit to the building on March 5.

"To be clear, the person allegedly responsible for Ayden Wolfe's death is Ryan Cato," Shea said. "Nonetheless, I have directed the Office of the Chief of Department to review the police response on Friday to determine if the officers' actions were consistent with all department procedures and whether our current procedures need to be revised.