TERRENCE L BROWN Jr - 8 Months - Port St Lucie FL

A 26-year-old man who said he shook his 8-month-old nephew before the
child was found to have injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome
faces a felony charge, according to an arrest affidavit released Thursday.

Kareem Daniel Farrell, of the 800 block of Southwest Tulip Boulevard,
was arrested Wednesday on an aggravated child abuse charge after tests
on the boy determined he had a traumatic brain injury, “ventricular
shift and massive retinal hemorrhaging.”

“According to medical experts these injuries are consistent with
shaken baby syndrome,” Farrell’s arrest affidavit states. “If the victim
survives, these injuries are likely to lead to permanent neurological
damage and loss of vision/blindness in one eye or both eyes.”



The child is at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach in
critical condition, Port St. Lucie Officer Tom Nichols, a department
spokesman, said Thursday.

Police on Saturday went to Farrell’s listed address and spoke with
Farrell and the child’s 22-year-old mother. Farrell, the child’s
maternal uncle, said he was watching the child in the child’s bedroom.



The bedroom has a mattress directly on the floor, and Farrell said
the child “simply fell off on to the ground, which is a short fall,” a police report states.

“He went to check on him when he noticed blood in his mouth,” a
report states. “Kareem also noticed that (the boy) was not breathing
therefore 911 was contacted.”

The child was taken to St. Lucie Medical Center, where police were
told the boy was in critical condition.

Police later learned the child cries frequently, and when police
interviewed Farrell he said he “was shaking the child to get the child’s attention,” Nichols said.

No one answered the door at Farrell’s listed address Thursday.

Nichols said investigators are working to determine when the child
was shaken, though they suspect it was between last Wednesday and Saturday.

Farrell, listed as unemployed, lives with his sister, and his family
lives in Louisiana. He reportedly said during a phone call that he
should leave and not come back.

The father of little Terrence L. Brown Jr., who has injuries
consistent with shaken baby syndrome, had harsh words Friday for the man
police say is the reason why Terrence is in critical condition.

“It takes an evil person to do something like that to a child, a
8-month-old at that,” Terrence L. Brown Sr. said. “My son faces a
possible life sentence of being disabled if, God willing, he survives.”

The elder Brown spoke two days after police arrested Kareem Daniel
Farrell, Terrence’s 26-year-old maternal uncle, on an aggravated child
abuse charge following tests that determined Terrence had a traumatic
brain injury, “ventricular shift and massive retinal hemorrhaging.”

“It’s unfortunate that this had to happen to him, but I have strong
faith in God and I know that God is in the business of performing
miracles,” said Brown, who lives in Fort Lauderdale.

Police last Saturday went to Farrell’s listed address on Southwest
Tulip Boulevard and spoke with Farrell and the child’s mother. Farrell,
listed as unemployed, lives with his sister.

Brown said Terrence’s mother is “pretty distraught . . . because she
trusted him, invited him into her home and unfortunately he turned out
to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Officer Tom Nichols, Port St. Lucie police spokesman, has said police
learned the child cries frequently. He said that when police
interviewed Farrell he said he “was shaking the child to get the child’s
attention.”

“It definitely hit home with me not only because that’s my son, but
because I’m so far away I couldn’t even do anything to stop it,” Brown
said. “I never had my father around when I was growing up, and you know,
it’s rough, it’s hard.”

Brown, who also has a 3-year-old daughter, said he confronted Farrell
and that Farrell “denied everything.”

“I get the call Saturday night that he’s been rushed to St. Lucie
Medical Center and I come up Sunday morning and that’s when I really saw
the extent of the damage,” Brown said.

Brown said Terrence, who was born in Broward County, is in critical
condition.

“All his vitals and everything, they’re pretty good, but it’s just
the whole issue with the head injuries,” Brown said. “Unfortunately,
it’s not something that we can rush.”

Farrell was held Friday in the St. Lucie County jail on $500,000
bail, a jail official said.