The grandmother of an 8-year-old boy who police said was beaten to death by this mother’s ex-boyfriend told Fox 40 that the boy died protecting his sister from his mother's child-molester ex-boyfriend.

Deandre Chaney Jr., 23, attacked Dante Daniels with a hammer and lighter fluid, Fox 40 reported, citing a criminal complaint. Chaney, a reported violent two-strike felon and sex offender, beat Dante in the early morning hours of Sept. 1, while performing a lewd act on his 7-year-old sister, authorities said. The boy died six days later.

Authorities said Chaney, at one point, turned the hammer and knife on the girl and the mother, who was reportedly out at the time of the incident. Brown told Fox 40 that the 7-year-old girl is fine, but will likely never see out of her left eye again.

“Trying to save his sister from this child molester,” Monique Brown, the boy’s grandmother said. “And that’s why he was beat the worst.”

Brown called her grandson a hero. She said the boy was beaten with a hammer “down to his spine.”

“They couldn’t save his brain,” she said.

Dante never made it to his second day of third grade at Oakridge Elementary in South Sacramento, the report said.

Chaney was arraigned on murder, attempted murder and charged with lewd acts with a child under 14.