An Erie man is facing homicide and assault charges after an investigation into the death of his two-year-old daughter in May of this year.
Erie police charged 24-year-old Dieudonne Bwisha, saying he brought his daughter to UPMC Hamot on May 30 with serious injuries and was unresponsive before passing away later that evening.
According to the criminal complaint, Bwisha put the child and their two siblings down around 6 pm on May 30 and went to wake them up about three and a half hours later to bathe them but the two-year-old was not responsive and was having trouble breathing with her eyes rolling the back of her head when he took her to UPMC Hamot.
Bwisha told investigators he was the only one watching the child and their two siblings at their home while their mother was at work.
The criminal complaint says police interviewed Bwisha’s sister, who was allegedly babysitting at the time the assault happened, that Bwisha came downstairs to get the child around 8:30 that evening, when she ran away, Bwisha hit her on the back for it, which she told him to stop doing.
She allegedly told investigators he then took the child upstairs and heard loud pounding that didn’t sound like footsteps.
An autopsy performed on May 31 by Forensic Pathologist Todd Luckasevic later determined the child’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the trunk, with Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook noting the manner of death as homicide.
When interviewed by investigators, Bwisha allegedly admitted to hitting her “hard” on the backside, which caused her to hit her head on the corner of a wall, causing her to bleed from her mouth which he allegedly used to clean the child up before taking her to the hospital, allegedly telling investigators, “I did the wrong thing, I’m sorry.”
Erie man charged with homicide for death of 2-year-old daughter
(WJET/WFXP) — An Erie man is facing homicide and assault charges after an investigation into the death of his two-year-old daughter in May of this year. It’s a crime that’s left a neighborhood in shock and a two-year-old dead. “It honestly just hurts me to think about because that’s a baby,”...
