Police Arrest Father in Death of 2-Year-Old Boy
A Van Nuys father was arrested on suspicion of murder after his 2-year-old son died of an apparent beating early Thursday morning, police said.
Juan Deras, 33, was being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Van Nuys Jail, said Officer Don Cox of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Paramedics were called to the boy’s home in the 6900 block of Hazeltine Avenue on Wednesday night, said Bob Collis, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The caller told a dispatcher that the child had fallen, Collis said.
Detectives from the LAPD’s Abused Child Unit later determined that the boy had been hit in the abdomen by his father, police said.
The boy was pronounced dead about 1 a.m. at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys.
Police conducted an early morning investigation at the boy’s home before arresting Deras at 7:15 a.m., Cox said.
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