Exclusive: Father Of Baby On Life Support Speaks Out After Mom's Boyfriend Charged
DORAL(CBSMiami)---The father of a 5-month-old boy who is on life support spoke out exclusively to CBS4 after the mother's boyfriend was charged with child abuse.
"It's horrible. He's a helpless being. There is no reason why somebody should do something like that to a baby," said the child's father, Adolfo Bravo.
Click here to watch Summer Knowles 11:00 p.m. report.
Bravo said, "It's horrible. I love my baby. It's a tragedy. Foul play was involved. It's already been confirmed. The message is stay involved with your kids' lives and check up on your kids. This is a bad thing but there are bad people out there, even bad people who are with a child's mother. Look at what happened. In two days I lost him."
Bravo said his son will be six months old this Sunday and is on life support at Miami Children's Hospital. He said he may not survive.
The case came to the attention of CBS4 after a number of posts on social media about the child known as "Baby Andres."
Click here to watch Peter D'Oench's 5:00 p.m. report
A post on Instagram said "Baby Andres" was brought in to Miami Children's Hospital two days ago and said the mother claimed he had fallen off a bed. But the post said doctors said the injuries were consistent with the baby being shaken and abused.
Adolfo Bravo posted on Facebook that his son "did not have damage consistent with falling off a bed." He said there was hemorraghing consistent with shaking a baby and he said his son's lower back was black and blue.
"They said my son fell off the bed but all the signs pointed to him being shaken," said Bravo.
On Wednesday morning, Miami-Dade Police arrested 28-year-old Antwan Sawyer and charged him with aggravated child abuse with great bodily harm.
"Anytime a child is injured like this we take these cases very seriously," said Miami-Dade Police Detective and spokeswoman Robin Pinkard.
"According to investigators they were initially told the child fell off the bed but they discovered that the injuries sustained were not consistent with that type of incident,"she said. "Right now it is too early for our investigators to say exactly how the child was injured."
If Andres does not survive, Pinkard said charges against the mother's boyfriend would almost certainly be upgraded.
Pinkard said the boyfriend stayed off and on at the mother's home. She said the child was injured after the mother left him in his care.
"I am glad he was arrested," said Bravo. "Now justice will be served."
Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta said that the child's mother was "not a subject" in this case. D'Oench also reached her by telephone at Miami Children's Hospital but she told him she did not want to say anything at all.
A check of records show that Sawyer has an extensive history of arrests. Records show he's been charged with aggravated assault with a firearm, grand theft, selling cocaine, petit theft, possession of cannabis, grand theft and resisting arrest with violence.
He was held on $10,000 bond in bond court and placed on house arrest.
The Department of Children and Families (DCF) is also involved with this case because of the injuries to the child.
Bravo said he had been receiving a great deal of support after the posts on Instagram and Facebook.
"I put my post on Facebook and this went viral. It's great to get this much support. It shows how people pull together," said Bravo. "I miss my baby...nothing like this should happen. I cannot explain it. I am in shock."
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