16-month-old baby girl is beaten close to death by her father

Sixteen month old Nylaha Lewis - pictured - is in a coma after she was, allegedly, nearly beaten to death by her father. Photo / ABC

A 16-month-old baby girl is in a coma after she was, allegedly, nearly beaten to death by her father during a Father's Day visit.

Little Nylaha Lewis suffered a bleeding in the brain and two skull fractures at the hands of her father, Shaquan Taylor, police say, and had to be rushed to the Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, New York.

Taylor, 18, allegedly injured the poor child on Sunday after her mom, Tammy Lewis - who was formerly in a relationship with Taylor - dropped her off at his home, so they could spend some time together, wrote the Daily Mail.

Lewis left the pair alone and came back to find her daughter covered in bruises and gasping for air, police say.

'He said that about a year ago he was going to hit the baby if she brought [her] around,' Christine Munford, Nylaha's aunt, told the New York Daily News.

'And [Sunday] he threatened her and said he was going to punch her in the face when she got there. And then obviously that happened.'

The alleged incident unfolded in the afternoon at Taylor's apartment in Coney Island. Taylor messaged Lewis on Facebook to tell her she needed to come to the apartment to take their daughter.

Lewis immediately picked up her daughter and run out of the apartment upon seeing the state of her.

But Taylor run after her, and allegedly punched her to the ground, leaving the defenseless mum in the apartment lobby unconscious.

The disgraced father then picked the baby and gave it to a friend who then called the ambulance.

When authorities questioned Taylor, he claimed the baby was injured because she had fallen off the bed but doctors confirmed that Nylaha's bruises did not come from a fall.
He was charged on Monday with felony assault for beating both Lewis and her child, ABC 7 reported.

Taylor was charged with sexual misconduct in 2015 because he was in a relationship with Lewis, who was only 14 at the time. A year later, he was arrested again for harassing her, the Daily News reported.