Teenage Father Held in Infant Girl’s Death
A teenage boy was arrested on suspicion of murder after he allegedly confessed to shaking his 5-month-old daughter to death, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman said Sunday.
Sheriff’s deputies arrested the 17-year-old at his apartment in the 44200 block of Kingtree Avenue in Lancaster on Saturday, several hours after his infant daughter died at Northridge Medical Center, said sheriff’s Sgt. David Halm.
Halm said the teenager admitted during an interview with detectives that he violently shook the baby. The father is being held without bail at Challenger Juvenile Hall in Lancaster.
The incident began Friday when sheriff’s deputies received a 911 call that the baby girl had stopped breathing shortly before 6 p.m., the sergeant said.
The baby was taken to Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center before she was transferred to Northridge Medical Center on Sunday.
Doctors at Northridge told deputies that the child suffered injuries consistent with shaken-baby syndrome, prompting the murder investigation, Halm said.
The whereabouts of the baby’s mother are unknown, he said.
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