25-year-old Allen Smith Jr was charged with first-degree murder while committing felony child abuse, first-degree murder while committing felony child neglect, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated child neglect after he got upset with a 6-month-old child because he “would not go to sleep” and strangled him, per report.
On June 26th, police officers were dispatched to Baptist East Hospital Emergency Room located at 6225 Humphreys Boulevard in response to a dead-on-arrival of a 6-month-old boy. The child was transported via ambulance from 2854 South Mendenhall Road Apartment 9. The infant was discovered in an unresponsive state and was pronounced dead at 4:52 am, shortly after arriving at the emergency room. The West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center discovered that ruled the cause of death as strangulation.
Now ruled homicide, police opened an investigation and determined that the boy had been sleeping with two other juvenile siblings and an adult male they referred to as “Wayne”. The siblings recounted a scene that no parent would ever want to imagine. They advised that “Wayne” was tired and was aggravated that the infant was crying and would not go to sleep, so he strangled the child. Allen Smith Jr then fled the scene before investigators could arrive.
On July 21st, Allen Smith Jr was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in perpetration of felony child abuse, first-degree murder in perpetration of felony child neglect, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated child neglect. His arraignment is set for July 22nd at 9 am.
