Police: Farmington Father Dropped 7-Week-Old Daughter Twice on Stairs

While a Farmington father accused of fracturing many of his 7-week-old baby's bones and his wife had multiple explanations for what could have caused their daughter's injuries, doctors told police that they suspected abuse was the cause, according to the arrest warrant. 

Morsy Elzawawy, 29, was arraigned in Hartford Superior Court on Monday, charged with causing his daughter's injuries. 

After the Connecticut Children's Medical Center released the baby from its care, the state Department of Children and Families placed her in a foster home and put her 1-year-old sister in protective custody.

The hospital also scanned the baby's sister for any injuries and found none. 

Different Stories Explaining Baby's Injuries

The parents' stories about how their baby got multiple broken bones, lesions and bruises changed in various interviews with police and DCF investigators.

DCF notified police on Sept. 1 that Connecticut Children's Medical Center was treating a baby with multiple bone fractures. 

At first, the parents told DCF investigators they did not know the cause of their baby's injuries and said that they took her to the hospital after discovering that her right shoulder was swollen one morning, according to the warrant. 

Elzawawy initially wouldn't allow DCF to take photographs of his baby, telling them it was against his Muslim religion, the warrant stated. 

The parents then blamed their baby's "bouncy chair" for possibly causing the injuries. They told police that they often put their baby in the bouncy chair at night to keep her upright due to acid reflux. She was fussy the night before bringing her to the hospital, likely because of the illness, they told police.  

In a separate interview later on with police and DCF representatives, the mother said that it was possible that the baby's 1-year-old sister caused the injuries when crawling up to give her a kiss, pushing on her or dropping toys on her.  

The mother said that the baby had not fallen and denied that either parent dropped her. She assured police that her husband did not have an abusive history and that she would leave him if that were the case. 

DCF has no prior cases involving the family.

The mother also told police that she and her husband often swaddled the baby and wondered whether they did so too tight. The mother expressed concern to police and doctors of her baby's frailty and said "she was scared to touch her." 

She suggested that the bruises could be from touching her or "tickling her cheek" because she "gets rashes easily." A pediatrician told her that her child was getting enough nutrients from her milk when the mother raised a concern about vitamin deficiency. 

Multiple Bone Fractures and Bruises

But doctors said that the bruises seemed to be caused by trauma as opposed to regular care or natural causes. They told police that the multiple fractures were "consistent with abuse." The baby suffered from fractures to her right and left clavicle and "left sixth posterior rib," lesions, and bruises to her nose, thigh and navel area to name a few. 

In a later interview with police, the mother recalled a time that her husband accidentally dropped the infant on the floor in the living room and asked her to look at her jaw for injuries. 

Elzawawy had a similar story about how he accidentally dropped the baby while putting her in her bouncy chair, though police found an inconsistency in the timeline of events in the two accounts.

'I Would Get So Mad'

Each of those initial explanations painted a very different picture of what happened in comparison to what Elzawawy eventually admitted to police in later interviews.

In one interview with police at the department, Elzawawy identified himself as the person responsible for the baby's injuries and called himself "the bad guy" multiple times. He said the baby fell halfway down the stairs when he dropped her. 

Elzawawy told police "I would get so mad" when the baby cried and that he would squeeze her to get her to stop, according to the arrest warrant. He also told them that he didn't love her as much as his other daughter. 

In reaction, police commented to him that those statements were not consistent with his initial explanation that what happened was an accident.

Ties to Pain Medication From Car Accident Injuries?

A frequent anecdote that came up in the arrest warrant from police interviews included references to an Aug. 24 car accident bin Bristol that Elzawawy was in about a week prior to taking his baby girl to the hospital. 

He told police that "Diazepam" and "Oxycodone/Acetaminophen" were prescribed to him for his injuries "within a short period of time" before he dropped his daughter twice while carrying her up the stairs in his home. 

It is unclear in the arrest warrant whether he was on medication when he reportedly dropped his daughter or whether it was directly related to the incident. But he told police he stopped taking the medicine at one point "because it was making him dizzy and forgetful." 

Elzawawy's wife told police that her husband wasn't himself after the car accident and he sustained back and neck injuries. She said that he was sad, sensitive to loud noises, "easily frustrated," upset he couldn't pick up his baby, and worried about his job as a certified nurse's assistant and not having a car as a result of the crash. 

Elzawawy was arraigned in Hartford Superior Court on Monday for charges of first-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment and risk of injury to a minor and will appear in court again on Nov. 5. He posted his $250,000 bond and is out of custody.