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Police: Toddler Swung In Sleeping Bag Dies

Baby Sitter Swung Toddler For Fun, Police Say

POSTED: 8:25 pm EST January 13, 2008

A toddler has died from a severe head injury he suffered when his baby sitter swung him around in a sleeping bag for fun and it accidentally hit a wall, Hartford police said.

Elijah Gasque, who was just barely 19 months old, was brain dead at about noon at Connecticut Children's Medical Center after being injured Friday evening in his home on Main Street, police said. The boy was kept on life support overnight as doctors prepared his body for organ donation.

The baby sitter, Yalines Torres, 25, of Hartford, was charged with risk of injury to a minor and reckless endangerment early Saturday morning before the boy died. Police said additional charges were expected. She remains held on a $500,000 bond.

The boy's mother, who is single and works during the day, met Torres because they live in the same building. Neighbors said the charges came as a surprise.

"She was very good with kids," said Guillermo Romero, a neighbor.

"When I see her with her kids, they seemed perfectly fine. So, you would trust her as a mother," said Darnell Evans, a neighbor.

Other residents who live in the same building said Torres recently broke up with her boyfriend and required medical attention for depression.

The boy's grandmother, Debra Needham, told Eyewitness News that her daughter regrets leaving her son with Torres.

"She put my grandson in a sleeping bag and she swung it around her head and she let it go and let his head hit the metal door frame, fracturing his rear skull," Needham said.

Hartford police Sgt. Edward Yergeau told The Hartford Courant that the incident was an accident and Torres was not trying to harm the child.

"(The boy's mother) is going through every emotion of grief. She's up there still clinging to his bedside until they take him to the (operating room)," Needham said. "She can't leave. She feels like she's leaving her baby again."

Detectives continue to investigate and have asking anyone with information about the incident to call Hartford police by dialing 860-527-TIPS.

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