Police: Unable to quiet baby, father fatally punches child

A Texas man is in jail for punching his daughter after dropping her, because she would not stop crying.The 31-year-old man, Iniubong Effiong Ebong,was charged with injury to a child.

Houston police said Ebong was watching his baby daughter, Indya, and her 4-year-old sister on Friday while the children’s mother was working. The mother said she came home at 5 p.m. to find Ebong asleep on the sofa with the baby, but the baby was not moving.

The parents drove her to West Houston Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, investigators said. An autopsy showed that Indya died from blunt force trauma to the abdomen. Officials said the baby’s liver was lacerated. Detectives said Ebong later admitted to dropping Indya on the floor and when he picked her up, she began crying, so he said he punched her in the stomach. The 4-year-old sister was not injured.

Ebong is in jail on a $200,000 bond. Officials said he is a Nigerian national who lives in Beaumont. Ebong was in Houston to visit his daughter and the child’s mother.

In court on Monday, prosecutors said the injury to a child charge could be upgraded to murder.