A man is accused of beating his girlfriend’s one-year-old son and leaving him with a traumatic brain injury while babysitting him at an apartment in Washington County, Pennsylvania, local outlet WPXI reported.
Lyndon Henderson, 24, was initially arrested on assault charges after the November incident, but he is now facing a charge of attempted homicide, according to the report. The little boy, Kybrel, was admitted to the hospital on Nov. 23 after authorities found him unresponsive at the residence, local outlet WTAE reported, citing the criminal complaint.
The complaint alleges that Kybrel’s mother, who has not been named, allowed Henderson to babysit her son while she went to work. When she returned home to check on her son, she found him unresponsive on the couch.
The child was rushed to the hospital with a sustained traumatic brain injury and many bruises. He also suffered a stroke and broken neck vertebra, according to the report. The baby was placed on a ventilator because his injuries deprived his brain of oxygen and caused swelling. The baby is also on a feeding tube and is in a medically induced coma, per WPXI.
Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh told the outlet Henderson’s initial assault charge was upgraded to attempted homicide, adding that his office “will always seek justice for victims.”
“Children are innocent and our most vulnerable, and I will prosecute offenders who commit crimes against them vigorously and to the fullest extent the law allows,” Walsh said.
At the time of Henderson’s arrest, he told law enforcement Kybrel fell off the couch onto the floor after he spun him around and placed him down on the furniture, the local outlets reported. Henderson told authorities the child seemed safe and happy at the time.
However, the baby’s physician said the child’s brain injuries are “100 percent unequivocally the result of child abuse,” the complaint alleges.
The child’s paternal grandmother, Cara Darrell, told WPXI her grandson “was on all kinds of machines.” Darrell added that she or her son, the boy’s father, would have been happy to babysit the child, had they known he needed watching.
“He was beat like a man. A man beat my grandson,” she alleged.
“He didn’t do [anything],” she added of her grandson. “There was nothing possible he could’ve [done] to do this to him.”
Henderson is being held in the Washington County Jail without bond. Darrell said she hopes he stays there.
“I don’t believe he belongs out of jail. He belongs there,” she said.
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