Dad said calling 911 'didn't come in my head' after fracturing baby's skull, claimed blood on shirt was tomato sauce: Cops

A Missouri father is accused of abusing his 3-month-old baby, who is unlikely to survive, and concocting a story that he dropped the child after slipping near a bathtub, a claim quickly refuted because the floor was dry.

Muhire Augustin, 30, is charged with child abuse and endangering the welfare of a child, the Columbia Police Department said.

Cops responded to the hospital on Wednesday morning for possible child abuse that occurred at a home on Fourth Avenue. The child’s “probability of survival is extremely low,” police said.

According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, doctors determined the infant sustained multiple skull fractures, brain bleeds and rib fractures that were in various stages of healing. The child showed signs of “severe” brain damage and also may have suffered a broken spine, investigators wrote.

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Doctors described the skull fractures as “pretty horrific,” the affidavit stated. The child required surgery and intubation, cops said.

During an interview with detectives, Augustin said he was unemployed and watching the child while the baby’s mother was at work. The mother returned from maternity leave Nov. 4, and Augustin watched the baby while she worked overnight. Detectives said he told them that the child frequently cried and he had difficulty feeding his baby.

The baby would “generally calm down more easily” when held by the mother, cops wrote. Augustin acknowledged that he would become “frustrated” because of the crying, per the complaint.

On the night in question, Augustin said he gave the child a bath in a round plastic tub. About an hour later, he was carrying the baby when he slipped on the floor near the plastic tub. He claimed he dropped the baby, who hit its head on the wood floor.

The baby stopped breathing normally, started making a wheezing sound and would not open its eyes, the affidavit said. But Augustin allegedly said he waited an hour to call for help. And when he did seek help, he called the child’s mother instead of 911, according to police.

The mother told police she rushed home from work and saw Augustin holding the unresponsive baby. She rushed the child to the hospital.

When asked why he didn’t call 911, Augustin allegedly said it “didn’t come in my head right at the time that happened.” But Augustin admitted that his baby’s not breathing constituted an emergency in which he needed to call 911, cops said. Police believe as much as 90 minutes passed before the baby received medical care.

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Investigators searched the home and quickly refuted Augustin’s claim that he slipped on bathwater. Augustin said he mopped up the water after the baby went to the hospital. But the floor was completely dry and the mop looked like it hadn’t been used in a long time, detectives wrote.

There was allegedly blood on the floor and on Augustin’s shirt. Augustin insisted to cops that the spots on his shirt were tomato sauce, according to the complaint.

Cops arrested Augustin and took him to the Boone County Jail, where he is being held without bond.

The post Dad said calling 911 ‘didn’t come in my head’ after fracturing baby’s skull, claimed blood on shirt was tomato sauce: Cops first appeared on Law & Crime.