Dakota King, 19, was charged with the murder of a 2-month-old child and taken to the Monroe County Correctional Center on Tuesday.
According to a Bloomington Police Department press release, an IU Health Bloomington Hospital employee called the police around 5:31 p.m. Tuesday after a 2-month-old infant was brought to the hospital in very poor health with injuries on the face. The child died before officers arrived. The name and gender of the infant were not released.
Family members of the deceased told investigators King had previously squeezed the baby and used his hand to shove the baby face-down in a bassinet in an effort to prevent the baby from crying.
Officers obtained a search warrant of the home where King lived with the infant on the 1500 block of West Kirkwood Avenue and found a reddish-brown stain that appeared to be blood in the infant's bassinet. The stain was consistent with the injuries to the baby's face found at the hospital.
In a police interview, King told officers the baby had spit up milk on him earlier in the day. King said this made him angry so he placed the baby face-down in the bassinet and put his hands over the back of the baby's head. The baby began to cry. King said he pressed the baby's head into a pillow until the crying stopped.
According to the release, King left the baby in the bassinet until the child’s mother came home from work later that day and discovered that the infant did not appear to be breathing.
An autopsy was performed Wednesday morning in Terre Haute, Indiana. The results are pending.
