A young Maryland father who reportedly became frustrated with his crying 5-month-old son is facing charges of killing the infant by covering his month and shaking him, authorities said Monday, according to the Washington Post.
Austin Ahimbisibwe was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse and was also ordered held on a $2.5 million bond, the report notes. According to the Post, the child's mother, Lauren Felitti, was present at the hearing and was crying as the details about the case were given.
“All I can say is I miss my son terribly,” Felitti told the Post in a Facebook messaging exchange after court. “I ache for him every second of the day. And I love him with all my heart.”
Ahimbisibwe and Felitti were not living together but had reportedly worked out arrangements to care for their son, Hudson Ahimbisibwe, who was born Jan. 20.
On the morning of June 23, Felitti dropped Hudson off at Ahimbisibwe's apartment around 6:25 a.m., when Ahimbisibwe was meant to care for the baby while Felitti was at work.
A little more than four hours later, at around 10:40 a.m., Ahimbisibwe called 911 and reported that the infant was unresponsive. Officers responding to the call found Ahimbisibwe performing CPR on the child, who was rushed to a hospital in Germantown, Md., before being transferred to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Hudson was pronounced dead at Children's National.
Earlier this month, the D.C. chief medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, noting that Hudson had suffered from trauma to his head, neck and trunk.
When detectives interviewed Ahimbisibwe last week, he acknowledged that Hudson would not stop crying and that he became frustrated.
“Austin Ahimbisibwe stated that he grabbed the victim by the neck and face and covered the victim’s mouth with his hand in an effort to get the victim to stop crying,” detectives wrote.
“The defendant in this case became frustrated with the baby and then shook the baby,” Assistant State's Attorney Sherri Koch said in court Monday, according to the Post, noting that the injuries were “consistent with shaking and abusive head trauma.”
Read more at the Washington Post.