Father aggresively treated his 4-month-old baby for over 20 minutes just because the infant wouldn’t go back to sleep in an incident videotaped by the baby’s grandmother; charged
West Virginia – In a disturbing incident from West Virginia, a 19-year-old father, identified as J. Burkhammer, has been charged with severe child neglect after video footage showed him aggressively treating his 4-month-old baby for over 20 minutes. Burkhammer faces serious legal consequences for actions that authorities say could have resulted in death or significant injury to the baby.
The unsettling incident came to light when the baby’s grandmother showed video to authorities of Burkhammer’s alarming treatment of the child. She reported it to the local sheriff’s office on February 13. According to the criminal complaint, the footage revealed a series of aggressive interactions that occurred in the early hours of the morning, starting around 1:45 a.m.
The complaint describes Burkhammer’s initial attempt to silence the baby’s cries by telling the infant to go back to sleep. It then alleges that he picked up the baby without supporting the head or neck and slammed the baby down in such a manner that caused the child’s head and neck to rock back and forth violently. Moments later, as the baby rolled onto a pillow, Burkhammer is said to have yanked the pillow away in frustration, exclaiming, “You’re p—ing me the f— off.” He then reportedly picked up and threw the infant back onto the pillow.
The video continued to capture Burkhammer’s increasing agitation as he yelled at the baby to “take the freaking bottle” and smacked the child on the chest while the baby cried. In a particularly distressing sequence, he covered the baby’s mouth with his hand for 28 seconds, instructing the infant to “breathe out your nose, not your mouth,” while the baby struggled and cried with muffled sounds.
In response to these grave actions, Burkhammer was arrested and charged with one count of gross neglect of a child creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury, and one count of strangulation, suffocation, or asphyxiation. He was booked into jail with a bond set at $225,000. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Friday, February 21. This case has starkly highlighted the dangers of child neglect and domestic abuse, reminding the community and law enforcement of the critical need to protect the most vulnerable.
