June 26, 2004|By Ryan Davis | Ryan Davis,SUN STAFF
A Northeast Baltimore man was arrested last night and charged in the killing of his 2-month-old baby girl, who stopped breathing on Father's Day.
Paramedics took Kaitlyn Marie Grimes that afternoon to Sinai Hospital, where she died Tuesday evening.
On Thursday, the state medical examiner's office ruled Kaitlyn's death a homicide caused by multiple injuries.
Last night, after a day of questioning, homicide detectives arrested the child's father, 24, and charged him with first-degree murder. Police did not release the man's name last night, saying they had not finished processing him.
The incident began with a 911 call about 4 p.m. Sunday, a city Fire Department spokesman said. Paramedics went to the 2700 block of Christopher Ave., where Sharon Surguy and her husband rent the second floor of their two-story home to the baby's family. Kaitlyn's family has lived there about eight months, Surguy said.
Surguy heard the mother's cries as she arrived home.
"My baby's dying," she said the mother screamed.
Neighbors said the mother was running up and down the stairs leading from her apartment to the front porch.
Surguy ran upstairs to check on the family.
She said she saw a paramedic kneeling on the floor and working on the baby, who was lying on the couch wearing a diaper.
The mother's boyfriend, who is the baby's father, was sitting on the couch next to the baby.
The family's older child - a boy who Surguy said is about 3 years old - was sitting on a nearby chair.
"He was just sitting there in shock looking into space," Surguy said. She led the boy to the front yard to look at flowers.
Before Surguy left the apartment, she said, she noticed that the baby had bruises.
"I thought maybe she fell or something," said Surguy, 39.
Baltimore homicide detectives went to Sinai Hospital about 5 p.m. Police spokesman Agent Donny Moses said the baby girl had bruises on her chest and her legs.
Kaitlyn was pronounced dead at 5:40 p.m. Tuesday.
Surguy described the baby's mother as a good parent. "She's really nice," Surguy said. "She loves her children very much."
Surguy said she had last heard Kaitlyn on Saturday, when the baby let out "just a normal `I want my bottle' cry."
After the baby was taken to the hospital Sunday, Surguy said, she didn't see the parents until Thursday, when she asked the mother whether Kaitlyn had survived.
With tears in her eyes, Surguy said, the mother responded, "She didn't make it."
Sun staff writer Stephanie Hanes contributed to this article.
