More details have emerged about the Louisiana father who was arrested last week for beating his 5-year-old daughter to death. Neighbors, who made the 911 call, told Baton Rouge police that they heard someone hitting a child.
When officers arrived at the residence, they found the 5-year-old victim, Summer Hawkins, unresponsive. The 23-year-old father, Aaron Hawkins, allegedly lied to police that his daughter became unresponsive after a fall.
Officers rushed the girl to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead. According to arrest records, detectives were told by doctors that the child’s cause of death wasn’t related to a fall. Doctors said the victim died from severe bruising and trauma.
“There’s no need for anybody to ever be under that much pressure to do something like that to their kid,” a neighbor said, “I have grandkids and for someone to do something like that to my grandkid, I would wind up in the jail cell because it’s a kid, they can’t defend themselves.”
Aaron was the only parent taking care of his daughter, according to investigators.
“Due to his frustration from having to be the sole provider for the child, caused him some anxiety and that his anxiety led to, we believe, the abuse of the child,” Sgt. L’Jean McKneely, a spokesperson for the Baton Rouge Police Department, told WAFB.
A neighbor also told investigators that she saw Hawkins hitting the girl with a belt as a form of discipline.
The witness told investigators that Hawkins was excessively hitting the girl last week to the point that she had to intervene, according to the arrest report. Detectives said Hawkins, under interrogation, admitted to hitting the child on several occasions lately.
“Where there’s domestic violence involving adults or any domestic violence involving kids, you can remain anonymous and give us a call, give any law enforcement agency in the area a call so that we can do some type of investigation to try and prevent things like this from happening,” McKneely said.
A gofundme page has been created to raise money for the victim’s burial.
Aaron was arrested and initially charged with cruelty to a juvenile in his daughter’s death. On April 8, police said the charge against Aaron was upgraded to first-degree murder.
