CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner ruled the June death of a 1-month-old Cleveland boy was a homicide.
Six week old Mason Jackson died of suffocation, according to medical records. Medical examiner spokesman Chris Harris said the decision was made on December 17th. The decision was only published on Monday.
Mason died on June 14th. Cleveland police said at the time they are investigating the case as a possible murder due to violence, but pushed it to the medical examiner for the official decision.
No arrests were made in the case.
Mason’s parents took him to the emergency room at the university hospitals around 10 p.m. on June 13. According to the police report, he was already blue and stiff when he arrived. Hospital officials told police they tried to resuscitate the baby but were unable to. According to police reports, he was pronounced dead on June 14 at 5:15 a.m.
A police report said a hospital officer told police that Mason’s mother stepped on the boy while she was drunk. The records do not indicate whether follow-up examinations confirmed the cause of the injury.
The police released little information on the case and the police report is heavily edited with few details.
The medical examiner’s ruling gives Cleveland 189 murders for 2020, most in a single year since 195 in 1982.
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