A man is accused of shaking his 3-week-old son to death at a North Carolina hospital while the baby’s twin sister and mother were spending time in a neonatal intensive care unit.
Noah Bliss was arrested Friday and charged with first-degree murder and intentional child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury in the death of Gunner Bliss, according to court records reviewed by HuffPost.
His wife, Savannah Bliss, told local outlet WRAL that the twins had been born prematurely on Sept. 15. Since then, the family had been living at WakeMed hospital in Raleigh as the infants received care, she said.
The mother told WRAL that on Oct. 6, she left Gunner in the care of his father while she went to visit Madelyn, who was still being treated in the NICU on another floor.
According to the outlet, medical staffers later told the mother that Gunner had suffered brain bleeding and swelling as well as head trauma resulting in a lack of oxygen. The mother said nurses told her that Gunner’s injuries suggested that he had been shaken by the boy’s father.
Read Related Also: Florida man who told police his wife drowned in tub convicted of beating, strangling her after fight over home renovations
An arrest warrant reviewed by HuffPost accused Noah Bliss of “willfully” killing the child.
“I trusted my husband to watch Gunner while I was taking care of his sister,” Savannah Bliss told WRAL. “For him to be taken so soon is so wrong.”
The mother told the outlet that she is confused by why he would allegedly murder his own son, saying Noah Bliss had appeared happy and describing him as a “proud father.”
“I never thought this would have happened,” she told the outlet. “He loved his babies.”
According to court records, Noah Bliss has not been authorized bond and is expected to appear in court Nov. 6. A public defender representing the father did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,’script’,’
fbq(‘init’, ‘1621685564716533’);
fbq(‘track’, “PageView”);
var _fbPartnerID = null;
if (_fbPartnerID !== null) {
fbq(‘init’, _fbPartnerID + ”);
fbq(‘track’, “PageView”);
}
