Cops: Mom didn't tell doctors her boyfriend punched toddler
NORTH MIAMI, Fla. -- A North Miami man is in jail because police say he punched his girlfriend’s toddler daughter so hard she needed surgery. The girl’s mother is also jailed because police said she did nothing about it for days.
The Miami Herald reports that 22-year-old Tyquan Spencer is accused of punching the 19-month-old daughter of Scarlett Ruiz so hard that she threw up.
When Ruiz got home, police say her older daughter told her what happened. The 24-year-old woman eventually took the girl to the hospital when she developed a fever, but police say she didn’t tell doctors what happened. They thought the girl had an infection.
Days later, the girl’s symptoms got worse. Doctors performed emergency surgery and found she had a perforated intestine.
Spencer is charged with child abuse. Ruiz is charged with child neglect. Neither has a listed attorney.
