A 22-year-old Sacramento man has been arrested on suspicion of homicide after a 4-month-old infant was brought unresponsive to a fire station and later died.
Sacramento police officers responded to the station shortly after 9 a.m. Aug. 14, after receiving reports that the infant had been taken there from a residence in the 1700 block of West El Camino Avenue, according to the Sacramento Police Department.
The baby was rushed to a nearby hospital, where lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful and the child was pronounced dead.
California does have a legal safe-haven option for parents who cannot care for a newborn. Under the state’s Safely Surrendered Baby Law, infants 72 hours old or younger can be surrendered confidentially to an employee at a designated hospital or fire station without fear of prosecution for abandonment, provided the baby shows no signs of abuse or neglect.
But that protection would not apply in this case, as the child was 4 months old, far beyond the law’s 72-hour limit.
Because of the circumstances surrounding the death, homicide detectives and crime scene investigators took over the case, processing the scene, collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses, police said.
Following an investigation by the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office, the death was determined to be a homicide, according to police.
Detectives subsequently identified 22-year-old Sacramento resident Victor Weaver as a suspect and obtained a warrant for his arrest.
Weaver was arrested Tuesday and booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on suspicion of homicide, police said.
Authorities have not released additional details about what happened to the infant or explained Weaver’s connection to the child.
The identity of the baby is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, according to police.
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