LARGO, Fla. (WFLA) — A Largo man was arrested Saturday after he allegedly hit and shook a 7-month-old baby, police said.
An arrest affidavit said that Jeffrey Grant Detwiler, 31, was seen on his own residential camera shaking, hitting, and almost throwing the baby to the point where the child’s head and neck bent backward.
Largo police said the video was found by a witness who heard Detwiler hit the baby and decided to check the home surveillance video.
When she checked surveillance video from Friday morning, she saw the “defendant shaking [the] victim and violently throwing him forward,” according to the affidavit.
The witness took the child to a hospital for evaluation, where the staff informed a police officer of the situation. According to police, the child did not sustain any apparent injury from the incident.
Largo police found Detwiler at his home and interviewed the suspect after he was read his rights. According to officers, the defendant claimed that he was having a seizure and would never hurt the child as a child of abuse himself.
“Post Miranda, defendant admitted his wife saw him have a seizure that he didn’t remember having,” The affidavit said. “During the seizure, defendant explained witnesses’ perception of the incident placed the 7-month-old victim in danger defendant also admitted to witness seeing him pat victim with too much force.”
However, police said they learned through interviews with witnesses that Detwiler has no known history of seizures or an explanation of the behavior seen in the video.
Detwiler was arrested Saturday evening on a charge of child abuse.