SANTA ANA : Father Is Suspect in Death of Baby

Police have arrested a 28-year-old man in connection with the death of his 6-month-old daughter.

The infant, Cathy Licet Ramirez, died at UCI Medical Center in Orange early Thursday. Doctors attributed her death to severe blows to the abdomen, police said.

Ruperto Ramirez, a father of five, was arrested Thursday night at his home in the 1600 block of West 3rd Street.

About 4:15 a.m. Thursday, paramedics and police had been summoned to the home on a report that a child needed medical attention, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Dick Faust said.

The infant’s mother, Catalina Gomez, 27, could not be reached for comment Friday.

A woman who said she lives with her two small children in the same A-frame house as the family said she was shocked that anyone would think Ramirez could kill his daughter.

“All I know is that they treat their five children right,” the woman, who declined to give her name, said of the couple. “I never saw him or her hit their children. (The children) sometimes behave like brats, and she really lets them have it, but kill one of them? No. I’m sorry, but that is not true.”

The woman said she did not hear anything unusual in the house the night authorities were called.

Faust said Ramirez was taken to Santa Ana City Jail, where he awaits arraignment on a murder charge. His bail was set at $250,000.