TURLOCK, Calif. (AP) –A 27-year-old man was fatally shot by police as he kicked, punched and stomped a young toddler to death in front of horrified motorists who tried to stop the attack on a dark country road, authorities said.
Investigators on Sunday were trying to establish the relationship between the suspect and the child they say he killed Saturday night. The Stanislaus County coroner said the boy appeared to be between 1 and 2 years old based on his size, according to county sheriff’s deputy Royjindar Singh.
“It’s been a long night of wondering, ‘Why?’ — not only for the officers and the passers-by who stopped and tried to help out, but for anyone. Why would somebody do this?” Singh said.
Singh said the coroner does not plan to confirm the identities of the suspect and victim until Monday. Because his injuries were so severe, the child will have to be identified through a blood or DNA test, he said.
The suspect had a child’s car seat in the back of his four-door pickup truck. The truck caught the attention of an elderly couple at 10:13 p.m. Saturday because it was stopped in the two-lane road facing the wrong direction, Singh said.
As they got closer, the couple saw the man brutally beating the toddler behind his truck and throwing the child on the ground, according to Singh. Two or three other cars stopped, an unusual number to be passing through the remote area surrounded by a dairy, a cow pasture, a cornfield and a farmhouse, he said.
“What we got from witnesses is he was punching, slapping, kicking, stomping, shaking,” Singh said. “They tried to intervene and get involved, but their efforts really didn’t have an effect.
The suspect was engaged in what he was doing. He just pushed them off and went back to it.”
A sheriff’s helicopter responding to emergency calls from the area landed in a cow pasture at 10:19 p.m. carrying a Modesto police officer who shot the man to death after he refused an order to stop beating the child, Singh said.
Paramedics tried to resuscitate the toddler, who was not breathing when they arrived. The boy was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
No children within the dead boy’s age range have been reported kidnapped or missing in Stanislaus County, Singh said.
The incident happened on Bradbury Road about 10 miles west of Turlock, a city located about halfway between Sacramento and Fresno.
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I support the police officer 100%! That 27 year old coward got what he deserved. That is the most dispicable story I have read in a long time. As a father of four, any crime against children really baffles me, but this one tops them all. Jail time would have been too easy for that scumbag.
16 Jun 08 at 9:59 p #Pray for the child.
Give the two police officers medals and promotions !
16 Jun 08 at 9:59 p #That little boy is in Heaven with God now. He won’t be suffering under the hands of this man man. Too bad this Bast$#* didn’t live to go to prison. He would have lived the same fate this little boy did.
16 Jun 08 at 9:59 p #This world makes me more sad everyday. I know for a fact I would have gotten the tire iron out of the car and bashed the guy’s head in to stop him. Yes, the police officer deserves a medal. That poor baby. Not a day goes by when there isn’t another example of the evilness of some people. It makes me appreciate kind and caring people all the more. Thank God for you. For my own sanity I really have to stop watching or reading the news.
16 Jun 08 at 9:59 p #I too thought about the fact that I would’ve gotten the tire iron and cracked one of his knees. If he didn’t stop his head would’ve been next. My son just turned 2, and this story is more disturbing than all the news I’ve read in the last 6 months together.
16 Jun 08 at 9:59 p #If I had seen this, I would have stopped and the perpetrator would have had to kill me too because I would have been a raving lunatic screaming at him and pounding on him to stop. This is the worst kind of disfunction imaginable. I’m extremely worried about where our society is heading. Innocent children are dying at the hands of sick adults and there really isn’t much we can do about it. You never know when or where it will happen next.
16 Jun 08 at 9:59 p #I would have found a rock or big branch if no tire-iron was available and whacked the guy on the back of the head before the police even arrived.
The police absolutely did the right thing! I also feel bad for those that tried to help but couldn’t. As easy as it is to say I would have whacked him on the head, the fact is if this being (not even worthy of being called human) was capable of beating an infant to death like that, there probably was no way to stop him without a bullet.
17 Jun 08 at 9:59 p #