The Dalton Police Department arrested 24-year-old Brian Gregory Allen on Tuesday evening on a charge of negligent child cruelty in the second degree. The charge comes after an investigation into a head trauma that put a two and a half month old baby in the hospital earlier this month. The baby survived the injury.
The investigation began on Jan. 4, when the Whitfield County Department of Family and Child Services contacted Dalton investigators about an infant being treated for head trauma at the TC Thompson Children’s Hospital in Chattanooga.
The baby was suffering from what doctors called a non-accidental head trauma.
Investigators determined that Allen, who is not the child’s father but is in a relationship with the child’s mother, was taking care of the baby during the day on Jan. 4. He reported to a Dalton detective that he was playing with the baby. At approximately 4 pm, Allen said that he noticed the baby had stopped breathing and contacted the baby’s grandmother who called 911.
EMS responded to the scene and transported the baby to Hamilton Medical Center, and shortly after, the baby was airlifted to Chattanooga. The baby did survive and has since been released from the hospital.
Allen is charged with negligent child cruelty in the second degree because the investigation found that he did not handle the baby with sufficient care while he said he was playing with the baby, but investigators do not believe that there was any intent on Allen’s part to harm the baby.