A California barber is accused of beating a 6-year-old boy to death with a piece of wood after the child urinated on himself

A California barber has been charged with murdering and torturing a 6-year-old boy by beating him with a piece of wood after the child urinated in his pants, authorities said.

Ernest Lamar Love, 41, has been charged with murder, torture and child abuse resulting in death, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, according to reports.

The incident occurred on August 29 around 6:30 p.m., when Love was tasked with caring for Chance Crawford while his mother worked the night shift at a hospital.

Surveillance videos show Love entering his barbershop with a large piece of rough wood “with a reluctant Chance following behind him,” the district attorney’s office said.

Three hours later, at 1:30 a.m., Love allegedly took the first-grader, who was unconscious and struggling to breathe, to the emergency room.

That’s when doctors found injuries consistent with violent shaking, including missing flesh on the buttocks, exposed wounds, subdural hematomas and extreme brain swelling, according to the district attorney’s office. The 6-year-old also had a fractured shoulder blade.

Prosecutors accused Love of beating the first-grader with the piece of wood and then pouring hydrogen peroxide on the open wounds before forcing the boy to do push-ups, sit-ups and jumping jacks.

Authorities said the barber was angry because the boy urinated in his pants while at a park in Placentia.

After the boy collapsed following the alleged attack, Love took the boy to the emergency room instead of calling 911, prosecutors said. Crawford died from his injuries on Sept. 3.

Love is being held without bail and could face life plus five years in prison if convicted on all charges, prosecutors said.

Crawford’s family is now mourning the loss of their little boy.

“The more I explain what happened, the angrier I get,” the boy’s father, Vance Crawford, told ABC7. “He’s six years old. I wanted to see my son graduate.”

“He lived a happy life. He was great. He was a great kid,” Crawford said. “I love my son. I miss him so much. He didn’t deserve that.”

“That kid was sweet,” the boy’s great-aunt, Carmen Hill, told ABC7. “What kind of monster are you?”

“This is slowly killing us because no child deserves to be treated like this,” the boy’s cousin, Aisha Herrell, told the outlet.

The family has set up a GoFundMe page to cover funeral expenses and says they are seeking “justice” for Crawford. The Orange County district attorney said he is seeking the same.

“While his new classmates celebrated the end of the first week of first grade, Chance’s seat in his classroom was empty as he fought for his life in a hospital bed,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.

Spitzer continued: “There are no words to describe the absolute terror this little boy was forced to endure, all at the hands of someone who was supposed to protect him, not torture him to death. Now, as prosecutors, we will do everything we can to achieve justice for little Chance and be his protectors in death, what he was not able to have in life.”