A 3-month-old boy is being treated at a Pittsburgh hospital after Erie police accused his father of shaking him and causing other injuries earlier this month.
Gregory L. Aubrey, 22, was charged on August 28 with felony counts of endangering the welfare of children and aggravated assault, as well as misdemeanor counts of simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. Erie 5th Ward District Judge Paul Bizzarro set the bond at $100,000.
A lawyer for Aubrey was not listed on his criminal docket sheet on August 29.
According to Erie police, the 3-month-old is still hospitalized at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, where he was flown after being taken to UPMC Hamot by Aubrey on August 21.
According to the affidavit attached to Aubrey’s criminal complaint, the boy was treated at UPMC Hamot for cardiac arrest after he stopped breathing and his heart stopped.
He was flown to Pittsburgh after hospital staff successfully resuscitated the child, according to detectives.
On August 27, detectives spoke with a doctor in Pittsburgh who examined the boy’s injuries and determined that they were almost certainly caused by abuse.
According to the affidavit, the doctor reported bleeding in multiple areas of the brain, seizures caused by the brain injury, and several healing rib fractures, all of which were consistent with abusive head trauma.
In an interview with detectives on August 28, Aubrey reportedly told them that the boy was crying and he didn’t want to hear it, so he picked the boy up and shook him.
He also admitted to squeezing the boy’s ribs while doing so, as well as once about a week earlier, according to the affidavit.
Investigators say Aubrey told them he shook the child around 6:40 p.m. They took him to the hospital on August 21, but not until 9 or 9:30 p.m.
Aubrey is tentatively scheduled to appear in court for his preliminary hearing on September 8.
