Kentucky man fatally punches one-month-old son in frustration after losing video game, faces murder charge
A Kentucky man has been charged with murdering his one-month-old son after he punched the infant in the head out of frustration over losing a video game.
Anthony Trice, 26, appeared in court on Monday morning facing charges of murder and first-degree criminal abuse of a child when his bond was finalized at $1,000,000.
According to Lousville Metro Police Department, Trice's son, De’Anthony Trice, was initially listed in critical condition but later died from his injuries, Louisville station WAVE-TV reports.
Trice was home alone on Friday watching the infant as he was playing video games, per an arrest slip. At some point, Trice started losing and became frustrated before he threw the controller and punched his son in the head.
The blow caused serious physical injury to the child, who began crying in pain. Trice then picked him up to calm him down and proceeded to the kitchen to make a bottle of milk, where he dropped the baby once again.
According to detectives, Trice then placed the baby in the bedroom and "propped him up in a seated position." He put the bottle into his mouth and went into the bathroom, police said. When he returned, he realized the baby was unresponsive and dialed 911.
The child was rushed to Norton Children's Hospital, where succumbed to his injuries two days later on Sunday evening, LMPD Spokesperson Alicia Smiley said.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to cover funeral costs for De’Anthony. On the website, a photo of the infant shows him in the hospital connected to several breathing tubes.
Meanwhile, child safety advocates from Prevent Child Abuse of Kentucky released a video on Monday hoping to save lives in situations such as this one. The video, set to be distributed to every birthing center in Kentucky, educates caregivers about safe sleep practices and pediatric head trauma.
“I think it’s a much bigger problem than you might realize,” Dr. Kelly Duak from Norton Children’s Child Abuse Task Force says in the video. “I saw a statistic that an infant in the state of Kentucky is 70-times more likely to die from an abusive head trauma than they are from a motor vehicle accident.”
"We want to make sure that we understand that in a blink of an eye, we have the opportunity to impact a child's life and with prevention and awareness we can stop tragedies from happening," Jill Seyfred from Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky said.