Details emerge in case of OKC infant's death

A man has been arrested following the death of a 10-month-old child.

About 6:40 p.m. Monday, Oklahoma City police responded to a call for a welfare check at an apartment in the 1900 block of Minnie Lane on the northwest side.

The caller said that the infant was unresponsive.

An Oklahoma City Fire Department ambulance transported the child to Integris Baptist Medical Center where he was pronounced dead an hour later.

Police interviewed a man who allegedly was in the home at the time the infant was found unresponsive.

He told investigators he was taking care of the infant and checked on him every 15 to 20 minutes while he slept, according to an affidavit for an arrest warrant written by an Oklahoma City police detective.

Just after 6 p.m., the man told the investigators, he noticed the child was cold and unresponsive, according to the affidavit.

The man also told investigators he attempted to get the child to respond by performing CPR, and placing his finger in a bottle of rubbing alcohol and holding his finger under the infant’s nose.

He said he called the infant’s mother to come home. She arrived in about five minutes. He also denied the child “had ever been in a car accident,” according to the affidavit.

The Oklahoma City police detective wrote that the Oklahoma medical examiner’s office performed an autopsy on Tuesday. A preliminary finding showed the infant suffered a significant tear in his abdomen that went near the front of the spine and caused internal bleeding.

The detective wrote in the affidavit that he contacted an OU Children’s Hospital physician who is an expert on child abuse injuries. The physician said the child’s injuries would be consistent with trauma such as a punch or kick to the abdomen, which could be fatal within a half-hour or two hours.

Police on Tuesday arrested the man they interviewed. The Oklahoman is not naming the man arrested because he has yet to be formally charged.

He was booked on a $10 million bond into the Oklahoma County jail on a complaint of murder in the first degree by child abuse.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Details emerge in case of OKC infant's death