Father who bit off infant’s nose irritated by nonstop crying, cops say
Police officials who responded to a frantic 17-year-old mother’s call for help in Fairfield, Calif., described a gruesome scene as they were led to her month-old infant son. A chunk of his nose had been bitten off and he was bleeding profusely.
“It was a very unusual case. It’s disturbing and gruesome,” Troy Oviatt, of the Fairfield Police Major Crimes Unit, told Fox40.
The infant was taken to Oakland Children’s Hospital, where doctors determined that he also suffered a skull fracture and brain hemorrhage. Doctors said about a third of the infant’s nose had been severed.
The baby was in stable condition, Oviatt said.
Joshua Cooper, 18, of Fairfield was arrested on suspicion of child cruelty and aggravated mayhem. Police say he bit the baby’s nose after becoming frustrated with the baby’s incessant crying.
The incident also shocked neighbors, who said they weren’t well acquainted with Cooper or the 17-year-old mother.
“I have a 3-month-old and a 2-year-old. You get frustrated,” neighbor Ashley Payne told Fox40. “To harm your child like that, I don’t see how anyone could do that.”
Fairfield Police Sgt. Jausiah Jacobsen said late Thursday that Cooper was in the Solano County Jail.
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