A father has admitted beating his four-month-old daughter to death because she was being “fussy” and would not stop crying.
Joseph Gazzam, 30, from Mt Lebanon in Pennsylvania, originally told police the baby was injured after falling out of the bed in which they were sleeping.
Yet in a second interview, after an autopsy revealed the girl had multiple bruises and fractures, Mr Gazzam admitted he had hit the child several times for being “fussy”.
He told police the girl “would not stop crying and would not fall asleep again” which prompted him to repeatedly punch her, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported.
“She stopped breathing and her eyes rolled back in her head,” a criminal complaint in the case quoted Mr Gazzam as saying.
He then called emergency services and the child was taken to St Clair Hospital, where she was pronounced dead an hour later.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office said the child died from injuries to her head and body and ruled the manner of death as homicide.
An autopsy revealed the girl had suffered bleeding of the brain, a lacerated heart vessel, a lacerated left kidney, fractured ribs and among further injuries.
Murder detective Anthony Perry said the injuries were not consistent with the girl falling from a mattress two feet above a carpeted floor.
Mr Gazzam is charged with homicide, recklessly endangering another person and endangering the welfare of a child.
