Man Charged With Punching 1-Year-Old Son To Death
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A Brooklyn Park man has been charged in the beating death of his 1-year-old son.
Brooklyn Park Police say 23-year-old Reggie Delaney Harper is accused of assaulting Kazerion Harper earlier this week.
The boy, almost 2, was fussing and crying in his crib Tuesday evening. When his mother picked him up to settle him down, according to the crimina complaint, Harper grabbed the boy, put him on the floor and punched him repeatedly in the chest.
"This is a sickening case of child abuse where our office and county child protection did all it could within the law to protect Kazerion and his older brother," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said.
The county attorney's office petitioned to terminate the parental rights of both Harper and the mother toward the couple's older child.
After paramedics performed CPR on the 23-month-old, he was taken to North Memorial Medical Center, where he later died.
The boy's cause of death was listed as multiple blunt force injuries.
Authorities say Harper has a history of abuse with other children in Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota.
In 2013, Kazerion's mother sought and received a restraining order after she said Harper hit Kazerion and then choked her unconscious when she tried to stop him.
Harper later admitted to the assaults. Kazerion and his older brother were then placed in foster care. The children's mother said she wanted the children back and that a restraining order would help protect them.
The mother got the restraining order, which is in place until July 2015, and eventually got the boys back. But police say she also eventually let Harper back into her life. She was at the home when paramedics arrived.
"The mother had done everything social workers asked and, as required by law, she was reunited with her children," Freeeman said. "Unfortunately, despite an order of protection against him, she allowed her abusive boyfriend back into the house."
Harper was convicted of a misdemeanor violation of a restraining order 14 months ago, but it's not clear if it involved the children.
He had another restraining order against him from another woman who said he had abused her.
Harper's first appearance in court is expected Monday afternoon.
