Alabama Father Arrested After His 5-Month-Old Baby Dies in the Bathtub While He Played Video Games.
There aren't many times when we see cases of parents who've forgotten their children but, when we do, the cases are almost always fatal.
23-year-old Cordarius Cotton was home alone with two children, one of them his 5-month-old son Dezmend, when he decided to play his video game. The problem was, Cotton had placed his infant in the bathtub with the water running and had forgotten about him. When he returned to the bathroom an hour later, he found his son unresponsive.
Alabama News reports that "Center Point Fire and Rescue and Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies responded to the Jefferson County Housing Authority complex at 8:19 p.m., said Center Point Fire Chief Donnie West. When medics arrived on the scene, Dezmend was being carried from the apartment.
A dispatcher had been providing CPR instruction while first responders were en route and paramedics took over and continued to try to revive the baby while en route to Children's of Alabama."
The child's mother was not home at the time and the other two children were placed in the custody of their grandmother.
Cotton is currently being held on a charge of "reckless manslaughter" which is another term for involuntary manslaughter meaning, a person's disregard for the life of another due to their actions or behavior resulted in the death of another. In the state of Alabama, reckless manslaughter is a class B felony and carries a sentence between two and 20 years.
Birmingham Chief Deputy Randy Christian made a statement on behalf of the Birmingham Police Department saying "We all have not only a moral obligation, but also a legal obligation to give proper care to a child whose life and well-being depends on a caregivers attention and actions. This was a heart-wrenching case for all involved including our personnel. God Bless this family and this little boy."
This is definitely a sad case.