A seven-month-old Milwaukee boy died earlier this month. Now, authorities have charged the boy’s babysitter with murder, and an arrest warrant has been issued for him.
According to court records, Hersen Patrick, 17, has been charged as an adult with one count of first-degree reckless homicide. An arrest warrant was issued Monday.
Baby’s death
According to the criminal complaint, the baby’s mother contacted 911 on July 10 to report that her baby was “unresponsive and not breathing.” Patrick, who was babysitting that day, took over the call and started speaking with the dispatcher, claiming the infant had “slept the entire day.”
Prosecutors claimed Patrick informed the dispatcher that the baby’s heart was beating but not breathing, and the dispatcher directed him on how to administer CPR until emergency responders came. When the Milwaukee Fire Department arrived at the incident between 41st and Concordia, the baby’s body was limp, “pulseless and not breathing.”
When they arrived at Children’s Wisconsin, the baby was still unconscious, and court documents stated that six rounds of epinephrine were required to regain a pulse. The baby’s neck had “linear abrasions” and “red, linear indentations under the chin, at the top of the neck, and above the collarbone.”
Two separate brain death investigations were performed, and with no blood flow to the brain, the baby was ruled dead on July 14. An autopsy revealed “numerous internal injuries” that are “consistent with blunt force trauma.”
What they’re saying: According to court documents, the baby’s mother asked Patrick to babysit her two children, a 7-month-old and a 19-month-old, while she went to work. When she arrived home, she discovered Patrick “lying on an air mattress” with the 7-month-old in a bedroom, “acting as if he was just waking up.” The mother discovered the baby not breathing.
Prosecutors claimed the mother told officers that while riding in the ambulance to Children’s Wisconsin, she saw two marks on her son’s neck that “were not present prior” to her leaving the baby with Patrick. She also stated that the infant was “in his usual state of health” as she departed for work.
A criminal complaint said that Patrick is not linked to the victim.
‘Immediately symptomatic’
According to the lawsuit, a board-certified child abuse doctor examined the 7-month-old and ruled that he had been subjected to “physical abuse” as well as “abusive head trauma.” Court documents described cerebral hemorrhages that were “too numerous to count,” among other ailments.
Court records also stated that the “most common cause” of the baby’s injuries is being “slammed, shaken, and thrown.” While the brain damage could not be exactly dated, considering their severity, it was “expected that the patient would have been immediately symptomatic.”
