Boonville man accused of breaking 1-month-old baby’s leg
BOONVILLE, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Boonville man was charged on Wednesday with child abuse after he was accused of breaking his 1-month-old baby’s leg in December.
Austin Cooke, 19, was booked into the Cooper County Jail on Wednesday on a $100,000 bond. A court date has not been set.
According to the probable cause statement, Boonville police were notified by the Division of Family Services on Dec. 11 that a 40-day-old child was brought in for a leg injury and medical staff discovered several other injuries with different stages of healing. The baby had a broken femur, broken ribs and bruising around his body, where were signs of abuse, the statement says.
The physician took protective custody of the child and requested his siblings also be brought in for an examination, the statement says.
Cooke was interviewed on Dec. 13 and he said he was the last person to be watching the child before taking it to the hospital, the statement says. The mother of the child had left for an appointment and a text exchange indicated the baby began only using one leg, the statement says.
During the interview, police asked Cooke what happened and he “initially gave officers one explanation, in which officers advised that did not explain the injuries caused,” the statement says. Court documents say he eventually changed his account of what happened and while crying and claimed his “anger got the best of him.”
Cooke claimed that he was holding the baby in a way that the child was laying on his forearm, the statement says. He then claimed to start patting the baby to get him to burp and then made several “strikes” up and down his body, the statement says. Cooke claimed to hear a “pop” when one of the strikes hit the baby’s leg and the boy started crying, the statement says.
