A Parkville man is being held after allegedly inflicting serious injuries on a young child, leaving the boy on life support at the time he was charged.
Sean Karr, 39, is charged with felony endangerment of a child. He is being held in the Platte County Detention Center on $100,000 cash-only bond. Karr has made two requests for a bond reduction, with the last denied on Tuesday, Sept. 29. Karr is due back in court on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
According to court documents, Karr called 911 on Thursday, Sept. 3 stating his girlfriend’s 5-year-old’s child was having seizures after falling down the stairs. When police arrived, they found the child in an upstairs bedroom, covered in bruises, seizing and vomiting. The child was transported to Children’s Mercy Hospital where the staff determined the bruising was days old and the child had internal bleeding in his abdomen. The victim was taken to surgery to relieve swelling on his brain.
Hospital staff reported the extent of the boy’s injuries to the police after surgery. The child was suffering from subdural bleeding, causing his brain to shift. The surgery was performed to remove pressure and blood from inside the skull. The child also had multiple rib fractures, pulmonary contusions, a liver laceration, bruises on the bowels, blood in the pelvis, suspected laceration of the pancreas and extensive bruising.
During an interview the following day with a representative of the Department of Social Service’s children’s division and police, Karr said the child had behavioral issues and had “acted out.” He said the child threw himself off a bench and hit his head a few days prior to his mother leaving him in Karr’s care.
The day of the incident, Karr said the child was vomiting at the top of the stairs and when he tried to catch the child he fell down the stairs face-first. Karr said he picked up the “lifeless” child and put him in the shower where he started to “come around.”
He called the ambulance after contacting the child’s mother, who was in Georgia.
A physician at Children’s Mercy Hospital said the injures were not due to a fall down a flight of stairs and were the result of abuse.
Police believed Karr could pose a flight risk as he was new to the Parkville area.