A two-year-old boy died on Friday after being fatally beaten by his stepfather.

The police have the 30-year-old resident of Allan Drive in custody and have classified the toddler’s death as a homicide.

Head of the Central Detective Unit (CDU), Superintendent Paul Rolle was on the scene and briefed reporters as to what their investigations revealed up to that point.

“Investigations right now are leading us to believe that the mother of the children – the two-year-old and five-year-old, both boys – left them home with her fiancée and prepared a meal for them prior to leaving for work,” he said.

“The younger of the two was eating his food and the stepfather punished him. The child went and lied down in the bed and was punished again sometime later. At this time, a friend of the family came by and the stepfather left and when she went into the room she noticed the child was unresponsive in the bed.”

The senior officer told reporters the child was beaten with an object.

Sources told the Bahama Journal that that object was a frying pan.

Superintendent Rolle said officers while on this scene, took the man into custody and will be speaking to him about the incident.

“When we got here we met the five-year-old along with the deceased and the family friend,” he said to reporters.

“The family came together and the mother was eventually reunited with her other son and she was taken cared if by police. Right now this is a homicide investigation. We have to look at the circumstances before we say anything further.”

The homicide count now stands at 71 for the year.

Police are continuing their investigations.