6-Year-Old Boy Dies From Injuries Inflicted by Babysitter His Mother Met at Church

Ernest Lamar Love has been charged with murder, torture, and child abuse.

A 6-year-old boy succumbed to severe injuries after being beaten by a babysitter his mother met at Amazing Church in Lake Elsinore, California, KTLA reported.

Chance Crawford / Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer

Ernest Lamar Love, a 41-year-old barber, was given charge of Chance Crawford’s care while Chance’s mother, Charlyn Saffore, worked the night shift at St. Joseph’s hospital.

Love has now been charged with one felony count of murder, one felony count of torture, and one felony count of child abuse causing death for the injuries he inflicted upon the young boy.

Love pleaded not guilty and is being held in jail without bail, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office.

On August 29 at about 6:30 p.m., the first grader was apparently dropped off at the barber shop where Love worked.

Later that night, video surveillance showed Love walking into the barber shop with a large piece of lumber followed by a reluctant Chance.

Love is accused of beating Chance with the lumber then pouring hydrogen peroxide on the wounds. He then allegedly forced Chance to perform push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks. The beating was allegedly prompted by the 6-year-old urinating in his pants at a local park.

After Chance collapsed, Love drove him to Children’s Hospital of Orange County at about 1:30 a.m. When he arrived, Chance was unconscious and struggling to breathe.

Doctors discovered severe wounds on Chance’s buttocks, extreme brain swelling, and other injuries consistent with violent shaking. They also noted a healing fracture on Chance’s shoulder blade.

Chance died on September 3.

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A church leader told KTLA that Love had been suspended from his role as minister and prophet Amazing Church because of several inappropriate relationships with women.

“Every few months, he would have a different woman there at the church,” a former member of the church told KTLA anonymously.

The former member also noted that Love “would get angry about certain things, you could see it on him, but I never saw him take it out on kids.”

Amazing Church Lead Pastor Jason Welsh said he never suspected Love would be capable of doing what he is accused of. “How could you do this to a child? It doesn’t warrant what happened,” Welsh said.

Saffore said she considered Love a friend and trusted him. “I was genuinely blindsided. I trusted him with my son,” Saffore told ABC7 Eyewitness News in an exclusive.

“[Love] came in my son’s life just as a male figure,” Saffore said. “He taught him things. He helped him overcome certain fears that my son had.”

“He died a brutal death. It was brutal. He did not deserve to go out that way,” Saffore said of Chance’s death.

“I’m sorry,” Chance’s father Vance Crawford told KTLA about Love. “He deserves what’s coming. I’m going to let God handle him.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a developing story and has been revised as new information became available.

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