A North Miami father is behind bars on second-degree murder and child abuse charges after he beat his 7-week-old baby to death, police said.
Mario Y. Perez, 36, was arrested Wednesday in the death of his son, according to a Miami-Dade Police arrest report.
Little John Brian Perez was hospitalized Jan. 10 after Mario Perez called 911 to report that the baby was not breathing.
Police say Perez told them that he had tossed the baby on a bed but when the child arrived at Jackson Memorial Hospital, workers discovered several bruises on the baby and that he had bleeding in his brain, according to the Miami Herald.
The baby stayed on life support until he died this past Saturday.
An autopsy revealed that the boy died from "blunt force trauma" and that he had broken ribs and severe brain trauma.
When he was questioned by police after his arrest Wednesday, Perez was vague at first about how the injuries happened.
"[Perez] could not remember how hard or how high he threw the victim on the bed," the arrest report states. "[He] admitted that he then shook the victim approximately three different times so hard, that he thought he broke the victim's neck."
Perez told police "his mind went blank" after he threw his son and that he only remembered picking him up from the bed.
Perez is expected to make an appearance in court Thursday.
