Mother asks judge for 'the worst,' after man charged with abuse of 2-month-old son

NORTH CHARLESTON (WCSC) - The mother of a two-month-old boy facing life-threatening injuries after police say his father abused him, says the infant is still in the hospital and is showing little brain activity.

The boy's father, Damonte Seabrook, 29, was charged with inflicting great bodily injury to a child on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, a judge set bond for Seabrook at $500,000.

Courtney Washington, the victim's mother, let out an emotional plea before the judge, saying she just learned the graphic details of what happened to her child hours before.

"I just want you to give him the worst," she said.

North Charleston Police responded to a call Wednesday morning at approximately 11:13 a.m. and Seabrook led them to the couch where his two-month-old son was lying unresponsive, the incident report states.

According to court documents, among the injuries, hospital physicians reported abusive head trauma, a skull fracture, and brain hemorrhaging.

Those documents also say the 2-month-old victim had bruising to the shoulders and thighs consistent with grab marks.

Seabrook told police he had been giving the baby a sponge bath near the couch, when the baby began coughing. He said he picked up the baby and began bouncing him in an attempt to clear the baby's cough. He said the baby, still wet from the bath, slipped through his hands and landed on the kitchen floor.

After the baby landed on the floor, he stopped responding and stopped breathing, Seabrook said.

Seabrook told police he attempted to perform CPR on the infant, but that the baby began gasping, then coughing up blood and milk, but that the baby stopped breathing again.

The man's brother told police he was a witness to the incident and confirmed his brother's story, the incident report states.

When police noticed a onesie saturated with water on the couch and asked about, Seabrook's brother said the father had dressed the baby after the accident, but then placed it under the shower head in an attempt to revive the infant. When that didn't work, the father undressed him again, he told police.

The brother called 911, he told police, when he realized the father's effort to revive the child were not working.

The hospital director for its Child Abuse Pediatric Division, where the victim is being treated, confirmed the injuries sustained by the 2-month old did not line up with Seabrook's explanation.

"Nobody can imagine this feeling if they've never had it happen to them," said mother Courtney Washington.

"It's not right, it's not."

Members of the family have set up a support page here.

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