Dan Scanlan

dscanlan@jacksonville.com

A 22-year-old Westside Jacksonville man told an officer he “needed to tell the truth” on March 17, according to his arrest report.

While much of the report about Ethan Bishop Baucom’s charge of aggravated child abuse has been redacted, one line is not.

“He stated he believed he heard a ’pop’ during the occurrence,” the officer wrote in the report.

The 5-week-old girl’s grandmother gave more details in a email to The Times-Union, saying the baby suffered a broken leg, arm, ribs and skull fractures.

“I am so distraught that words cannot describe,” the grandmother said. “Oh the horror of all this! I’m so overwhelmed with pain, heartache and sorrow over this.“

She said the baby is expected to recover without any permanent damage.

Baucom remains behind bars on $250,000 bail, according to jail records.

RELATED | Read more Jacksonville-area crime news

The investigation began on March 15 when officers were called to Wolfsons Children’s Hospital about a baby with broken ribs, injuries to her lungs and liver and “multiple brain bleeds,” the arrest report said. The First Coast Child Protection Team’s examination concluded the baby had been physically abused with “a minimum of three attacks.”

On March 17 the baby’s mother called the Florida Department of Children and Families, saying she believed Baucom had possibly injured the child while he was baby-sitting March 12, the report said. She said Baucom told her he had squeezed the child.

Baucom told the responding detective that he was getting frustrated due to his inability to get any sleep while baby-sitting. At some point something happened that was blacked out in the report, and that’s when he said he heard the pop. The the baby briefly ceased crying, then cried harder, he said.