Inset: Diego Longoria (Brownsville Police Department). Background: A residential street near where Longoria allegedly choked his 3-month-old son in Brownsville, Tex. (Google Maps).
A Texas resident finds himself incarcerated after allegedly choking his 3-month-old son amid a protracted dispute with the child’s mother, according to state law enforcement.
Diego Alfredo Longoria, 23, faces charges including injury to a child, assault by strangulation, and making a terroristic threat, as reported by the Brownsville Police Department.
The incident reportedly took place last week at a home on Tulane Avenue in north Brownsville, a significant city situated on the eastern border of the U.S. near Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico.
Police were alerted to the scene in response to a domestic disturbance call, as detailed in a criminal complaint sourced from local news outlets KVEO and KGBT, which broadcast together under the name “ValleyCentral.”
The child’s grandmother, identified in reports, allegedly informed dispatchers that Longoria was harming his son, according to the police statement.
While officers were en route, the grandmother placed a second 911 call, reporting that the infant had a noticeable bruise on his face and that Longoria was attempting to flee the scene, as per the complaint.
When officers arrived, the three adults at the scene were separated from one another, police noted in the charging document.
Then, Longoria told responding officers he and the child’s mother had been arguing over “stupid things,” according to the complaint.
The grandmother repeated her claim that Longoria had been hurting the child and brought up an alleged history of verbal altercations, police said. The older woman went on to say that when she returned home, her daughter opened the door, handed her the baby, and asked her to take the child to the car, according to the complaint.
The defendant allegedly followed the grandmother and the mother to the car — demanding they return the child to him, the grandmother told police. But she refused to give up the child, saying it was “not safe for the baby to go with him,” according to the complaint. Then, Longoria allegedly started banging on the car windows.
The baby’s mother then explained the genesis of the “stupid” argument between the pair, police said. She said she was feeding the child when Longoria told her he was going to “intentionally scare him” and she told him not to do so, according to the charging document.
The man, however, ignored the woman and scared the boy anyway.
The mother said the baby widened his eyes and stopped eating as Longoria grabbed him and began to “thrust him up and down in the air in an aggressive manner,” ultimately causing the boy to cry.
The baby’s mother told the defendant to stop — apparently upsetting the man, police said. So, Longoria walked outside with the baby in his arms, the mother told law enforcement. When the mother followed the defendant outside and tried to retrieve the child, Longoria allegedly pushed her back and told her to get back repeatedly — though each time she refused the man’s commands.
Finally, the push and pull reached a breaking point.
“[Longoria] told her if she didn’t go back inside, he was going to kill her. In fear of his words, [the baby’s mother] went back inside and could still hear the baby crying,” the complaint reads.
Eventually, the baby’s crying sounds became gasping sounds, the mother told law enforcement. So she hurried back outside and found Longoria holding the baby with his left arm and using his right hand to “choke the baby,” according to the charging document.
The mother said she rushed over and attempted to stop the defendant from further hurting the child but that he pushed her off and she fell, police claim. Then, Longoria allegedly threatened to kill both mother and child if she did not get back inside the house.
After that, the baby’s mother called her own mother to relay what happened. Later, Longoria came back inside with the little boy, placed him on the bed, grabbed the baby’s mother and beat her, police allege.
Law enforcement questioned the woman as to how many times the defendant hit her; she said she lost count, according to the complaint.
At some point, the mother picked her child up from the bed and Longoria choked her for roughly 10 seconds, police said. Immediately after that, the grandmother arrived and called 911.
Longoria is being detained in the Brownsville city jail. Law enforcement contacted the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office regarding formal charges in the case, police said.
The child suffered a fracture to his right collarbone, possibly caused by pressure during the strangulation, according to the charging document. He is recuperating at the Driscoll Hospital in Corpus Christi.
