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Police say newborn baby died after father threw her to the ground; mother was in hospital at the time
June 23, 2021
A Kentucky father allegedly admitted to having killed his 7-week-old daughter after shaking her and throwing her on the floor like a rag doll.
The child's mother was in the hospital after suffering complications from delivery at the time of the incident.
What are the details?
A Tuesday report from the Lexington Herald-Leader said that 23-year-old Del'Shawn Banks took his child to a pediatrician's office for treatment of her injuries last week after she fell unresponsive. Staff reportedly called law enforcement upon seeing the severity of the newborn's injuries.
Police arrived at the pediatrician's office to find the child was unresponsive. At that time, authorities arrested Banks in connection to the suspicious injuries.
The baby was taken to Norton Children's Hospital where staff determined she sustained a fractured skull and "other injuries conducive to abusive head trauma."
She died at the hospital the same day.
Following his arrest, Banks reportedly told officers that he'd shaken the baby and thrown her to the ground.
Authorities charged him with murder-domestic violence and was arraigned in court Tuesday, where a $500,000 cash bond was set.
What else?
WDRB-TV reported that Banks allegedly hurt the child — which it identified as Del'Luna Banks — before.
Del'Luna's mother, 23-year-old Cortney Jones, also hinted that Banks was an abusive partner.
"If it starts before the child is into the world, and if it happens while you're pregnant, it's going to continue after," she said. "Whether we want to face the reality or not, it's going to happen after."
Jones said that she suffered a miscarriage before giving birth to Del'Luna.
"It hurts so much, because she was my rainbow baby," she admitted. "You're expecting to live a long life with your child, to make memories, and I only have two months' worth of memories. That's just not enough."
Jones said that she and Banks had broken up before the fatal incident.
"The person can tell you they're going to get better," she said. "They can tell you they're going to get help. They can tell you all these false promises and they can make it seem like it's going to happen. They can make it seem like they're getting better, but they're not."
Jones also told WLKY-TV that she's "sick" over what happened and recalled the moment she found out her child was unresponsive.
"I'm sitting in the wheelchair [in the hospital] waiting to get rolled back to the room and I get the call my baby wasn't breathing, and he's crying, the dad's crying," she said. "How can you hurt your own child? How do you hurt someone that looks just like you? A part of you, your blood, your sweat, your tears, your everything. How do you do that?"
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help the family and has received nearly $2,000 in donations at the time of this reporting.
Father charged with baby's death, mother calls his actions 'disgusting'www.youtube.com
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Sarah Taylor
Sarah is a former staff writer for TheBlaze, and a former managing editor and producer at TMZ. She resides in Delaware with her family. You can reach her via Twitter at @thesarahdtaylor.
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