SHAMOKIN, NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Two Shamokin parents are being charged with the October death of their infant child after police say the father fell asleep with the child under his arm.
According to police papers, an ambulance was called to the 500 block of South 7th Street in Shamokin for reports of an infant in cardiac arrest on October 13th around 10:15 a.m.
The dispatcher coached the parents through child CPR until the ambulance arrived and police say the infant was then taken to Geisinger Shamokin Area Community Hospital.
The father of the infant was identified as Brandon Granacheski and explained to officers that he had fallen asleep in the same bed as the infant the prior night.
The mother of the infant, Patricia Zimmerman, abruptly woke Granacheski up the next morning when she noticed the baby was under his arm, blue and not breathing, according to police.
While interviewing the pair Garnacheski told officers that around 11:30 p.m. on the night of October 12th he went to Turkey Hill. He then told police that upon arriving home he went upstairs to watch TV while Zimmerman fed the infant a bottle.
According to police, Zimmerman brought the baby upstairs at 2:30 a.m. and gave Garancheski the baby for the rest of the night while she slept downstairs.
Zimmerman told police that she went upstairs to check on the infant around 10:00 in the morning and noticed that Granacheski was still asleep with his arm over the baby’s face.
Police say they questioned Zimmerman as to if Granacheski had been under the influence and she told them “no.”
Granacheski told officers that while he was in Philidelphia on October 9th he had done methamphetamines, which his urine sample came back positive for. He said between October 11th and 13th he had not done drugs.
After interviewing the parents, police went back to the house and collected towels, sheets, pillows, a blanket, paper towels, a pair of shorts worn by Zimmerman and cellphones owned by the two as evidence. Police say that some of these articles had a “red residue” on them.
Both Granacheski and Zimmerman are charged with endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person.