Strollerderby

In Happier News, Police Shoot Man ...

... Who beat baby to death on the side of the road.

This is the most bizarre, most unnerving story I've come across in a long time and was hesitant to share it because it's so gut-wrenchingly awful. But imagine driving down a highway late at night and seeing a man pull over, grab a baby out of his car and start beating it to death.

That's pretty much exactly what happened over the weekend in Turlock, a rural Central Valley town in the middle of California.

Said one police officer in the story, "As people tried to intervene, to tackle him, he just went back to what he was doing. Anything and everything he could do to the baby, that's what he was doing." 

A police helicopter landed nearby and officers shot the 27-year-old man, who died on the scene. The baby, whose age was anywhere from 1 to 2 years, later died at the hospital. Police said about a dozen people witnessed the beating in progress and two physically stepped in to stop it. I wonder, it's late at night, a rural highway, an obviously fucked up guy ... what would you do?


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Comments

 

Cassie said:

My bet is the baby was the child of his girlfriend and he was mad at her.  Revenge killing.  I am so glad he is dead.  Monster like that should all be executed.  If it had been me there I would have run that fucker over with my car or whooped him the back of the head with a tire iron.  

June 16, 2008 2:17 PM
 

L.S. said:

What a nightmare.  You'd hate to think that you could be one of the people that would just drive by or worse, stand around and do nothing. Sadly, as we see in this case even something as horrifying as a baby being beaten didn't spring 12 people into action. It is all too often the case that we wait for someone else to step in and help. I know self preservation is a strong instinct but imagine if all 12 of those people had ganged up on that man. Perhaps that baby could have been saved. No one thought to grab their tire iron?  I once helped passengers out of a flipped SUV and I know this is very very different but I hope that I would have the courage to intervene (with a tire iron) in a case like this.

June 16, 2008 2:27 PM
 

Janice said:

This is so sad there is no word to describe it.  One of the reports said the baby was so badly beaten that he will have to be identified by DNA.  It makes me sick that the criminal just got shot and died at the scene while the poor baby suffered and suffered.

My husband's comment was too bad that one of the passersby didn't have a gun, they could have ended it.  I guess I know what he would have done.

June 16, 2008 2:53 PM
 

eve said:

that is sad beyond words. i wonder if there is some sort of memorial that people could contribute to in a tangible way, so that they poor baby is remembered as a person and not just an anonymous statistic.

June 16, 2008 3:27 PM
 

Maeby said:

<<As people tried to intervene, to tackle him, he just went back to what he was doing. >>

Why didnt they grab the baby?

June 16, 2008 3:28 PM
 

cocosmalls said:

Maeby,

Maybe the people trying to help were elderly or much smaller than the dude and just could not physically get to the kid.

June 16, 2008 7:53 PM
 

Atom&Yves said:

www.mercurynews.com/ci_9603906

Excerpted from above article:

“Authorities identified the Turlock man eyewitnesses saw punch and stomp a toddler to death on a darkened country road before being fatally shot by police as Sergio Casian Aguilar, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department announced today… The toddler is believed to be Aguilar’s 2-year-old son, according to the sheriff department’s news release.”

I have two grandchildren the same age as that poor baby. Enjoy God's loving embrace, Little One.

June 16, 2008 8:34 PM
 

TBA said:

This is an awful story and a terrible situation - I'm glad this man is dead. But as far as intervening - it's pretty amazing that people did at all. As one poster mentioned, self-preservation is a pretty strong instinct. I suppose if several people could get together, with some sort of weapons, it would be different - but as a lone stranger? Who knows how big this man was? And clearly not in his right mind.... I am 5 ft 2 and small - and I don't carry a gun.  Would it have made the situation better if my children had lost their mother too to this monster too?

I also happen to be a social worker who lives in NYC and I see, on a much smaller, less-violent scale, things like this quite often - usually on the subways - parents belittling or threatening their children. It's a gut-wrenching thing, but usually when someone is violent to their own children, I feel pretty confident that they would have no qualms about being violent towards me - and I stay silent.

Maybe I'm a horrible person or a bad citizen, but I prefer to use my profession as a means to helping children - and keeping myself safe.

June 16, 2008 9:35 PM
 

Manjari said:

It seems so unfair that this monstrous asshole got to die so quickly. I wish he could be brought back to life and then beaten to death. I can't even imagine what that poor child was thinking as this happened.

June 17, 2008 7:32 AM
 

MissB said:

"It seems so unfair that this monstrous asshole got to die so quickly."

Ditto.  I read this story yesterday on CNN and I nearly started hyperventilating.  I was so freaked out.  Later, I found myself wishing that the dirty son of a bitch had survived so he could be confronted with the true horror of his actions.

FWIW, the report I read described the first car that stopped as being driven by an elderly couple.  Two other cars stopped, two people intervened.  Yesterday, I found myself wondering what I had in my own car to use as a weapon against this guy.  I didn't even think of my tire iron.

I was so angry when I read this story yesterday.  But I didn't actually start crying until I read this:

"Enjoy God's loving embrace, Little One."

Indeed, grandma.  I'm glad you said it.

June 17, 2008 9:57 AM
 

Atom&Yves said:

Um, it's grampa Jim. The poor Little Soul has become a part of me. I now consider him my own Beautiful Grandson, by proxy, and he will forever be in my prayers.

June 17, 2008 11:10 AM
 

mary budzynski said:

This is a ugly world we live in. We can only learn from this experience. God bless this little soul that was taken.To bad this sob was shot. He did'nt have to suffer like that poor baby did. I wish for all these monsters that are out there to burn IN HELL. I have a doughter 21 months This breaks my heart. I would love for once to open the paper or turn on the news to hear something that simlpy brings a smile to your face. After this i will always carry my tazer gun & mace. Becauase not only for my own safety but for others also.

June 17, 2008 12:44 PM
 

michelle said:

This is absolutely horrible...I can't imagine seeing this taking place and not being able to stop it. God bless you Little One.

June 17, 2008 3:17 PM
 

Cassie said:

My mom told me when I was in college to keep a tire iron under my bed.  She said if someone broke in to hide with it and bop them.  If you think about it no one would see it coming in an unfamiliar dark room.  I just wish someone could have smashed Mr. Asshole once in the teeth with one.  My bet is still that he did it to get back at the mother.  Abusers often see children as objects that the mother loves, not thier own children.  That is why they have no pity.

June 17, 2008 3:22 PM

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