Update on November 11: Sergio Ramirez was no-billed by a Dallas County grand jury.
Original post:When Lisa Decatur arrived at the West Oak Cliff apartment at 7 a.m. Saturday, the child was fine. The 43-year-old home health care nurse is part of the team that provided round-the-clock to Sergio Arellano Ramirez's 1-year-old son, who had an undisclosed medical condition and severe breathing problems. The empty beer cans strewn about the apartment, and Ramirez's admission that he'd stayed up all night talking, were somewhat unusual, but nothing to disrupt the normal routine.
Decatur had been there an hour and was feeding the child breakfast when Ramirez asked her to put his son in the stroller and wheel him into the family room. Decatur obliged. She moved the medical equipment first then, as she turned to retrieve the child, she heard his suction machine, needed to clear fluid from his lungs, abruptly stop.
When she entered the bedroom, she found Ramirez standing there, clutching his son tightly to his chest. Decatur and a witness -- the child's mother, perhaps; the police report doesn't specify -- begged him to let go.
"You have to let me suction him!" the nurse pleaded. Ramirez responded, according to police, by headbutting her in the face and repeatedly yelling "Fuck you!"
Decatur briefly left the room to call 911. When she returned, Ramirez was standing over the child, whom he had laid on the bed, police say. She moved in to perform CPR, but he kept pushing her away, screaming "You don't know what the fuck you are doing!" He was slapping Decatur as paramedics entered the room.
Michael Barrett, a 60-year-old Dallas firefighter, tried to grab Ramirez so the paramedics could perform CPR, but Ramirez reared back and punched him in the right temple, knocking him unconscious. Police arrived not long after that, finding a disoriented Barrett leaning woozily over the front railing. They then relieved the two firefighters who had Ramirez pinned to the ground and placed him under arrest.
Ramirez was taken to Lew Sterrett on a pair of assault charges, one for headbutting the nurse, the other for knocking out the firefighter. The child was taken to Methodist Central Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Dallas police say they are investigating the incident as child abuse.
