A 2-year-old boy is in a body cast after a beating that ended with a fractured rib, lacerated liver, a broken leg and more, according to police.
St. Petersburg Police arrested Deontray Antwan Bonner-Walker and accused him of beating his girlfriend's son.
Officers were called to All Children's Hospital on Saturday to investigate the abuse of the boy.
"You can't imagine the mindset of someone that would do something like this to a baby," said St. Petersburg police spokesperson Mike Puetz.
The child had been brought to the hospital by Bonner-Walker and the boy's maternal grandmother.
An examination of the child revealed a broken leg and other injuries inconsistent with an accident.
Police said this was obviously no accident.
"Given the fact that you have injuries of course, all over the body, bruising, clearly this isn't just an act of a child falling. This is an act of a beating," Puetz said.
Officers learned that the victim's mother had gone into labor that night and was taken to the hospital by the grandmother, leaving the child in the custody of Bonner-Walker, 34.
Hours later, the grandmother received a call from Bonner-Walker who told her the she needed to come home because something was wrong with the child's leg.
She returned home and they both took the child to All Children's Hospital.
Further examination of the child was conducted by the hospital staff. It revealed that in addition to a broken femur the child also had a fractured rib, a lacerated liver, traumatic injury to the pancreas, bruising to the feet, shin, center chest area, and right eye, with linear marks on the chest and above the right eye.
Those injuries were consistent with multiple acts of blunt force trauma and required the child to be encased in a body cast.
When questioned, Bonner-Walker claimed that he had no idea how the child became injured and denied responsibility although he was the only person to have custody of him during that time.
Bonner-Walker was charged with aggravated child abuse, and found in violation of conditions of a previous court order by moving in with the child's mother. He had been previously arrested for domestic violence against her and was order by the court not to have contact with her.
But police says hurting this young child is part of a pattern.
"It just speaks to the personality of this man. Not just that he did this on this occasion, but obviously he's got a history of other issues, which he has a very violent temperament," said Puetz.
