COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County father has been indicted on murder charges in the death of his baby daughter, accused of a "brutal and prolonged attack" that killed her.
Arrest warrants for Sherrard Brooks allege that in November 2021, he "caused extensive brain injuries" to his infant daughter through an assault that "resulted in critical injuries that caused... serious pain, eventually resulting in death."
The warrant describes how the infant's mother arrived home from work in the early morning of November 22, 2021, and found the baby "having a possible seizure in her baby swing."
According to the mom's account, the baby at that point wouldn't take a bottle, "had her tongue at the back of her throat, her eyes weren't tracking stimulus, she was shaking and she was breathing abnormally."
The mom took her to Wellstar Kennestone, where doctors diagnosed "extensive brain hemorrhages and unexplained bruising all over her body."
The baby was rushed to Children's Hospital of Atlanta, where doctors concluded the "prognosis was dire and concurred that her injuries were suspicious in nature."
The baby girl died four days later.
Doctors believed "abusive head trauma" caused her death. Later autopsies performed and reviewed by specialists in 2022 ruled "the cause of death as complications of non-accidental trauma to the head."
"The injuries included numerous brain hemorrhages in the front, back and sides of the brain, petechiae in the eyes, numerous bruises around the body, numerous critical vein thromboses, a spinal cord injury, brainstem compression and bilateral retinal hemorrhages," an autopsy found.
Neither the arrest warrant nor the indictment specifically laid out what is believed to have caused the trauma. However, a physician speculated to officers the baby was "shaken to the point of receiving brain injuries that she was unable to survive."
Brooks had been left alone with the infant girl and her 11-month-old brother while the mom went to work. He told her when she got home, "he did not know what was wrong" and that she had "been fine when he placed in the (baby swing)."
He said she'd had a bottle after waking up and that before putting her in the baby swing, she was "breathing normally, although a little congested from a cold, but not behaving abnormally."
According to the warrant, Brooks tried to explain the brain hemorrhages as a product her brother accidentally dropped an empty humidifier "with no weight to it" on her a couple of days earlier. He also "explained the marks on (her) neck as being caused by her rubbing her neck on a blanket while sleeping in a swaddle."
"At the time of the interview Mr. Brooks had seen the digital medical record in the patient portal app, which gave him access to the Doctor's conclusions that (the baby) was possibly abused," the warrant notes.
It adds that medical personnel concluded the injuries "were not caused by a humidifier."
In the indictment, Brooks faces seven charges, including three counts of felony murder, two counts of first-degree cruelty to children, aggravated assault and aggravated battery.
