A 19-year-old man has been arrested after the 19-month-old girl placed in his car was discovered with life-threatening head injuries Wednesday, police said.
Mickey E. Brown Jr. was booked into Spokane County Jail just before 2 p.m. Friday, where he faces a felony charge of assault of a child. The girl is being cared for at a local hospital, but she is not expected to survive, according to a news release from the Spokane County Sheriff's Office.
Spokane Valley firefighters responded to a home near Second Avenue and Custer Road around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to the news release. They requested police respond to the address when they examined the girl's injuries.
Brown, who is the boyfriend of the girl's mother, said he'd given the girl a bath and fed her when she had a seizure. He said he'd run to a family member's nearby home when he realized she wasn't breathing, and tripped and fell on the child. He also said she had been knocked over by a dog.
The mother said she'd left the child in Brown's care while she worked, according to police.
A doctor caring for the child told police Friday that the injuries did not appear accidental and that they were "highly specific" for "abusive head trauma," according to police.
Charges may be amended, authorities said. Assault of a child is punishable by up to a lifetime prison sentence and a fine of $50,000.
