ST. LOUIS, Mo. – A man was charged Monday with murdering a toddler by allegedly swinging the boy into a wall, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Police said Jarrod W. Rudder of Elkville, Ill., was supposed to be taking care of two-year-old Michael Pulliam at the time of the incident on Friday night in St. Louis. His relationship to the child was not immediately known.
He allegedly grabbed the boy by the wrist and slammed him into a wall and a lamp.
Paramedics were summoned and took Michael to a hospital in Carbondale, Ill. He was later flown to St. Louis Children's Hospital, where he died late Sunday night.
Authorities said the toddler had brain bleeding plus multiple broken bones and contusions, according to the Post-Dispatch.
Rudder was charged with first-degree murder. He was ordered held in the Jackson County Jail pending a bail hearing Tuesday.
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