Inset: Alyssa Thompson (Columbia County Sheriff”s Office). Background: The daycare center where Thompson allegedly abused an infant in Lake City, Fla. (Google Maps).
A Florida daycare worker is behind bars after repeatedly and brutally abusing an infant in her care to the point that the little girl grew limp before having seizures, Sunshine State police say.
Alyssa Thompson, 30, stands accused of one count of aggravated child abuse, according to the Lake City Police Department.
The underlying incidents occurred on different days in April at Wee Care Too, a daycare facility on NW Gwen Lake Avenue in Lake City, a small town located some 60 miles due west of Jacksonville.
Authorities began investigating on April 20, after a report that a child had “a medical episode consisting of seizures, being lethargic, and having a fever,” according to an arrest report obtained by Law&Crime.
While in the hospital, the child began to have seizures and was transported to a pediatric care center in Gainesville, police said.
Hours later, the daycare center director reviewed surveillance footage and told law enforcement “she found some inappropriate behavior on behalf” of Thompson, according to the charging document.
Content warning: graphic depictions of child abuse.
“I observed Alyssa Thompson forcefully tossing [the infant] into a bouncy chair hitting her head on the metal bar of the bouncy chair,” the arrest report reads. “In the video you can see her head jerk forward from the force of her head hitting the bar. On that same day approximately 20 minutes later she snatches [the infant] out of the crib and drops her onto the changing table. When she drops her on to the changing table it is from a significant height where [the infant’s] head bounces off of the changing table multiple times.”
Later, the footage shows Thompson changing the infant. When the defendant picks the little girl up off the table, however, she “appears to be limp and not moving,” according to the arrest report.
But that was not the first instance of abuse, law enforcement alleges.
The doctor at the pediatric hospital said the girl “had a skull fracture and brain bleeding” and “that she did not believe this type of injury would come from one singular event,” the charging document says.
On April 13, “several other instances of child abuse were viewed,” police claim.
In short succession, the defendant is seen “snatching and tossing” the child onto the changing table and then picking the girl up, spinning her around, and dropping her on the table, according to the charging document. In each instance, the little girl’s head “is seen bouncing off” the table’s wooden rails, police said. Then, after the baby is changed, the defendant allegedly “picks her up from under the arms and rams her head into the wooden rail of the changing table.”
Next, the woman “slams” the baby into a speciality foam seat designed for infants, according to the charging document.
And the abuse continued, police claim.
Eventually, the daycare worker noticed the child’s blank stare, yanked her out of the seat, and slammed her into a crib “where her head bounces off the mat forcefully,” the charging document says, referring to the surveillance video. At first, the girl appears “unresponsive” but then straightens out a leg and “then lays motionless again,” police allege. Then, Thompson allegedly put the girl back in the foam seat.
The charging document then recounts several instances in which Thompson is allegedly seen pushing, hitting, and shaking the foam chair in an apparent effort to either get the little girl’s attention or “some type of response.” At some point, the daycare worker grabs one of the baby’s arms and “smacks and hits” her legs, police said.
“Throughout the rest of the day [the little girl] does not move much at all,” the charging document goes on. “At one point Alyssa takes her foot while she is sitting on the ground feeding another baby and with the bottom of her foot kicks the [foam] seat several times in attempts to get [the little girl’s] attention.”
A doctor with child protective services surveyed the trauma suffered by the child due to the abuse, revealing that the little girl suffered “significant injuries” including a skull fracture, detached retinas, bleeding behind the eyes, and a brain bleed, police said.
The doctor also told police there is “a very strong possibility [the little girl] that will have lifelong medical issues stemming from” the abuse.
Thompson is being detained in the Columbia County Jail with no bond, court records show.
