Long before Cory Byrd was charged with endangering the welfare of 4-year-old Marc Bookal, he proved capable of frightening violence.
Byrd served five years and five months in state prison for the 2002 attack of an 18-year-old. Now 25 years old, the victim in that attack remembers Byrd as a “vicious animal” who brutally beat him and slashed his face even though he did everything Byrd asked.
The young man, who asked that his name be withheld, had come from out of town and stopped on Benkard Avenue to buy $10 worth of marijuana. Byrd and another man got in his car and stuck a gun against his ribs. They told him to drive.
The young man, who asked that his name be withheld, had come from out of town and stopped on Benkard Avenue to buy $10 worth of marijuana. Byrd and another man got in his car and stuck a gun against his ribs. They told him to drive.
Byrd directed them to Edward Street, a deserted two-block strip of asphalt near Byrd's Benkard home. The young man said he didn't have any money, but he gave them the drugs along with his wallet, necklace and keys. He hoped they would let him go if he did as they told him.
Instead, they beat him nearly unconscious before Byrd delivered a final blow. It looked like a punch, but Byrd had a knife in his fist and opened a gash that split the young man's face from his right eye to his left ear.
“After I got cut, they left me there to die,” the young man said.
Doctors at Westchester Medical Center needed about 250 stitches to close the 7-inch gash.
The young man now worries about 4-year-old Marc Bookal. Byrd was supposed to be watching Marc on Monday, but he told police the little boy walked out the door ahead of him and disappeared. Police have not named Byrd as a suspect beyond the endangering welfare charge. However, neighbors and law enforcement have been skeptical of Byrd's story from the start.
The young man said he's seen first hand what Byrd has in him.
“If this guy gets mad and he treats that little boy in any way he treated me, then I have pity for that little boy's soul,” he said.
The young man now has a young son of his own. He hopes maybe some piece of his experience with Byrd will help in the search for Marc. Maybe the path Byrd made him drive. Maybe their Edward Street destination. Maybe something else.
“I hope to God they find that little boy,” he said.
Reporter Oliver Mackson contributed to this story.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091216/NEWS/912169965
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