QUEENS — A Sunnyside father was charged with killing his 5-month-old daughter after trying to stop her from crying in the middle of the night, the Queens District Attorney said Tuesday.
Jorge Baque, 36, assaulted his daughter, Alaia Baque, while she cried in their Greenpoint Avenue home at about 2 a.m. on July 30, prosecutors said. NYPD Chief of Detectives Bob Boyce said back in August they were “looking at” the father after they found out he took the infant to a Santería priestess because he thought she was acting strange.
Baque was finally arrested on Tuesday and charged with second-degree murder and assaulting a child.
“This is a tragic and horrible case. The victim is a baby whose short life was filled with suffering and pain allegedly at the hands of the very person who should have been protecting her and keeping her safe,” District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.
“The defendant in this case is the baby’s father. Instead of comforting and soothing her as she cried, the defendant is accused of causing severe head injury, bleeding on her brain and severe hemorrhaging in the back of her eyes. This didn’t have to happen and shouldn’t have happened.”
After assaulting his daughter, Baque placed her back in the crib, according to the DA, and awoke at 6:30 a.m. to find that she had blue lips and was unresponsive.
He was expected to be arraigned in Queens Criminal Court Wednesday morning.
There was no immediate information on his lawyer.
