WHITEHALL, Ohio — Whitehall police arrested a man on Saturday after a baby in his care was severely injured.
London Hodge was taken to Nationwide Children's Hospital with head trauma, according to the Whitehall Police Department.
Hodge, 21-months-old, died early Sunday, police said. She suffered injuries consistent with abusive head trauma and shaken baby syndrome, police said.
Police were called to a home in the 5300 block of Great Oak Way at 7:40 p.m., 10TV's Glenn McEntyre reported. Bryan M. Johnson was initially charged with felonious assault. Police said on Sunday after the child died that they will seek additional charges against Johnson. Johnson, 19, lives at the same home as the baby. The child's mother, Natasha Steele, said Johnson was not the baby's father.
Steele, 21, was attending an event for her internship and was not at home when the alleged assault occurred.
"I loved him, my daughter loved him, and I trusted him," Steele said. "They said she had brain stem damage. A part of her brain had shifted; she had shaken baby syndrome."
Steele said that Johnson called her from jail and said he had accidentally dropped the baby on the stairs.
"And I said 'Sorry? My baby girl is dying right now.' And he said, 'You don't even know what happened,'" Steele said. "I said 'Will you please tell me what happened?' He said 'I dropped her on her head when I put her in the bathtub walking up the steps.'"
Steele said Johnson was violent with her once before, striking her across her mouth, and choking her, McEntyre reported.
In what she called the worst decision of her life, she gave him a second chance.
"I have to pay for my decision," Steele said. "Trust me, I wish I could go back because everything would have been different. Everything."
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