A man from Tulsa, Oklahoma, faces child-abuse murder charges after a 22-month-old boy died on Monday, Dec. 11, from severe injuries, according to police.
“At that point, he punched the child in the stomach and threw him against the wall so hard that there was a hole,” Mackenzie said.
Police described the boy’s injuries as a “massive blunt force head trauma and internal bleeding, as well as abdominal trauma.”
The boy’s mother left her three children—a 3-year-old, 22-month-old, and 8-month-old—with Collins to babysit on Friday, Dec. 8, while she was at work. When she returned home at a residence near 61st Street and Peoria Avenue the next day she found Collins and the toddler on the couch. She reportedly noticed that her second child did not look well.
“She observed bruising on his forehead and lips,” police said in court documents, reported Tulsa World.
Collins initially blamed it on one of the older children, claiming the 3-year-old had pushed the child off his bed.
The mother subsequently called a grandmother to check on the child who contacted emergency responders, reported the newspaper. The boy was taken to the hospital and was given a less than 50 percent chance of survival before dying Monday morning, according to Fox News.
“Children look for adults and parents to take care of them, and in this situation that didn’t happen, and it’s a tragedy,” Mackenzie said.
“They look up to their parents and their caretakers for protection and safety, and if you can’t take care of them and you get frustrated, then you need to take a step back,” the police officer added.
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