Police say the New London man charged with first-degree reckless homicide refused to call 911 while a 3-year-old boy was dying because there were warrants for his arrest.
The child’s mother received a call from John Brush less than 30 minutes after she left him alone with the boy on Sunday, June 14. Brush told her the child was not breathing and she rushed back to New London from Appleton.
When the mother arrived she found the boy lying on the floor.
“Brush and his parents were just standing around, no one doing anything,” she told police, according to the criminal complaint.
When she asked where the ambulance was, Brush said he had not called 911 because he had outstanding warrants.
The mother then carried her limp, unconscious son out to her car and drove him to the hospital.
Although Brush’s parents accompanied the mother to ThedaCare Medical Center-New London, Brush remained at his parents’ home.
The boy arrived at the New London hospital at 4:47 p.m. on June 14. He was then immediately flown by helicopter to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Green Bay, where he died on June 29.
According to Dr. Kristinza Giese, who performed an autopsy, the boy died of blunt force trauma to the head.
She said the contusion on the back of the boy’s head was not consistent with falling down seven carpeted stairs and landing on a carpeted floor.
The boy had internal bleeding to the left side of his head, bruising on the right side of his head, both knees and his groin area were also bruised.
Brush, 35, was charged Friday in Waupaca County Circuit Court with first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree reckless endangerment, felony child abuse, possession of methamphetamine, two counts of possession of paraphernalia for the manufacture, distribution and storage of methamphetamine, and possession of marijuana.
He is currently being held in custody on a $500,000 cash bond. Brush faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted of first-degree reckless homicide.
See more details of what investigators uncovered about Brush and the child’s death in the June 30 Waupaca County Post and New London Press Star.