(WWJ) A 3-month-old boy who was beaten to death in a Warren motel by his teenage father is confirmed to have been suffering from coronavirus when he was killed, police said.
The father, Laquan Williams, 19, of Detroit, has been held in the Macomb County Jail since he was charged on April 13 with first-degree child abuse, which carries a penalty of life in prison if he's convicted. Authorities are also mulling a murder charge.
Police said the infant and his mother, 18 and also from Detroit, were staying with Williams at a Days Inn & Suites in Warren when the baby was killed. Officers got a call about a child in distress and desperately tried to revive him at the scene. He was transported to a local hospital, then to Children's Hospital in Detroit, where he died.
How was the infant killed? Essentially it boiled down to this ... "The baby was crying and the father got angry." That's from Police Commissioner William Dwyer, who also told told freep.com, "It's a sad case."
The cause of the boy's death appeared to be blunt force trauma. The mother was reportedly in the hotel lobby when it happened, came back to the room, saw the child and dialed 911. She was not charged.
Unknown is whether anyone else in the family also had COVID -19 or what the boy's symptoms were. The parents tested negative.
All six officers who responded to the call of a child hurt remain in quarantine, Dwyer said.
