Outside the Scarborough home he shares with his young daughter, Michael Warren recalls a frantic phone call he received last week that shook him to the core.
“She was frantic, panting, she couldn’t breathe, she kept saying she was sorry and she didn’t know … it was just a bunch of garbled half-sentences,” Warren said.
Warren is the former partner of the mother of Toronto’s 87th homicide victim, a three-week-old baby girl. The two share a five-year-old daughter.
“I saw the baby once, I was hoping for the best really, honestly I was,” he said.
He was shocked when he learned baby Isabelle was in hospital.
“She said the baby was in intensive care … I had a lot of questions.”
On Thursday, when paramedics responded to a 911 call at the apartment on Pharmacy Avenue in the city’s east end, they found the baby with serious injuries and called for police.
“When we arrived on scene we noticed the paramedics were working on an infant, three weeks old, who had obvious signs of trauma, the baby’s condition was very bad,” Toronto Police Const. David Hopkinson said.
READ MORE: Three-week-old baby girl dies after alleged assault in Toronto’s east end
“The baby went into hospital, went onto life support, and on Sunday the baby succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced deceased,” he said.
Warren said he freaked out when he learned the baby died of her injuries and that her father was arrested.
“I said pretty much everything any dad would say about that,” he said.
Matthew Bouffard, 29, was charged with aggravated assault.
WATCH: Father of 3-week-old girl charged in her death
Police told Global News they anticipate upgrading the charge to second-degree murder after the autopsy is completed on baby Isabelle.
Warren said he now struggles with how to explain to his daughter that her baby sister was the victim of a homicide.
“Three weeks old, that is beyond my comprehension … I couldn’t even fathom … I would tell her it was a serious accident, and something seriously bad happened,” he said.
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