RED WING, Minn. — \A Red Wing man, Hunter McCutchen, 27, was charged with punishing and killing a 2-month-old infant three days ago at an address on Red Wing’s south side. The criminal complaint lists five counts of manslaughter. McCutchen was arrested about 12:30 a.m. – 2-1/2 days after a woman called 911. At the scene officers reported McCutchen was performing resuscitation on the child. This was about 12 p.m. Tuesday. They described the child as pale with purple eyelids and unresponsive. McCutchen explained, police said, that he had been feeding the infant on the living room couch, then got up briefly and returned to find the infant suddenly unresponsive. Police reported there was either milk or formula in a cupholder of the couch and a marijuana pipe on the kitchen counter. The child was taken to the Red Wing hospital. Emergency room staff performed compressions for 50 minutes and finally detected a heartbeat. The infant was then airlifted 50 miles to a Rochester hospital. The incident was in the 500 block of Maple Street.
McCutchen. Charges include culpable negligence and creating unreasonable risk
Itemized details
The criminal complaint alleged these details:
> An emergency room physician noted abnormal bruising on the child. An X-ray showed multiple bilateral rib fractures in various stages of healing, as well as, a healing clavicular fracture that was “highly suggestive of no accidental trauma.” Imaging of the infant’s head and brain showed multiple areas of bleeding on the brain, as well as loss of brain function.
> The 911 caller told police she had been nervous about leaving the infant alone with McCutchen. He “plays too roughly.” she said.
>Nonetheless she bad left the child with McCutchen. She returned home found him attempting cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. She called 911.
> Police arrived and found a situation “very traumatic with lots of screaming, wailing in pain, intense crying..” The woman and McCutchen were holding onto each other, There was a 4- or 5-year-old girl at the scene.
> The day after the death the woman called McCutchen and recorded the conversation. In the call, police said, McCutchen admitted: “I just got so overwhelmed” and “I wasn’t thinking.” He admitted too that “put my hand over the child’s mouth, but it wasn’t like “a death grip or anything.”
> An earlier routine checkup had found the child a healthy 8-week-old.