Police: Father Breaks 4-Month-Old's Femur While 'Violently' Removing Girl From Crib

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HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- State police say 42-year-old Santos Vidal Mercado broke his infant daughter's leg because the child was crying and he was stressed out by life.

Investigators say the incident happened in late June inside the trailer Mercado shares with his fiance on Dolphin Lane in Hempfield Township.

Trooper Stephen Limani told KDKA that Mercado "had multiple things in his life that were causing difficulty, some financial stress." According to investigators, those issues and his 4-month-old's crying drove Mercado to grab the child so forcefully he broke the baby's leg.

"As he was trying to pick up the child from inside the crib, the child's leg was lodged between himself and the crib," Limani said. "And Mr. Mercado kept violently yanking at the child, trying to remove her from the crib, for approximately two minutes to the point where he broke the child's femur because he was yanking on the child so hard."

Mercado told investigators the baby began to scream in a way he'd never heard before, so he called 911. The child was rushed to the hospital. Mercado was arrested.

Investigators say all he needed to do was call for help or take a few more minutes to calm down.

Mercado is in the Westmoreland County Jail on $15,000 bond charged with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

The child's grandmother reports the little girl is healing and is expected to make a full recovery.