TWO parents have been arrested for the death of their child, who was found with bruises on his head in a house littered with dog feces, police say.
Police say the child’s father admitted to throwing the baby in the air and dropping it to the ground without immediately seeking medical attention, an affidavit shows.
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Police were called to a Texas apartment on Tuesday after reports of a baby who was unresponsive and not breathing.
They found a seven-month-old dead while the apartment’s interior was untidy with what appeared to be dog feces on the floor and other items in the interior, according to police.
The child had severe bruises and swelling on the left side of his face and head, and minor bruises on his skull, according to an affidavit shared by Odessa police.
Kameron Gammage, 23, and Layla Pierson, 18, were initially charged with injuring a child, police records show.
The charge against Gammage was upgraded to manslaughter, police said in an update Thursday.
Pierson told police she noticed the baby was not breathing and woke Gammage, who then called 911.
She said he seemed “indifferent” but then apologized to her, the affidavit said.
When asked about the bruising on the child, Gammage claimed it was because the baby hit his head on the crib.
Police say Gammage “remained emotional and seemed unconcerned about the incident,” police records said.
When the couple were taken to the police station, Gammage admitted he had anger issues and told investigators he was dealing with a lot of stress, including the baby’s crying.
He is said to have said that, trying to play with the child, he started tossing it in the air and accidentally dropped it after the fourth throw.
The baby landed “hard” on the ground, the affidavit said.
He said he didn’t want to tell Pierson because he was afraid he would “get in trouble,” police said.
Pierson told detectives that when she asked Gammage about the bruises, he told her the baby had hit his head on the crib.
The child behaved “picky” for the next few days, she said, but the couple reportedly had not sought medical help for him.
“Because Kameron Gammage inflicted serious bodily harm on a child and deliberately failed to seek medical attention for the child for three days, whose child was found dead three days later, Kameron Gammage was arrested,” the police statement said.
The statement went on to say that the charges against Pierson arose from her knowledge of her baby’s injuries and her failure to seek medical attention.
The couple also reportedly admitted to trying to clean up their apartment with dog poop before officers arrived.
Inflicting injury to a child is punishable by up to two years in prison and manslaughter to life.