A Nevada man has been arrested in the death of his 5-year-old son after police say the child was whipped with a cable box cord.
Gerald Oglesby, 33, was arrested March 16 after his son was found dead in the father’s apartment, according to KVVU.
Oglesby told police there was a 13-minute gap between when the child breathed his last and when he called 911.
During that time, Oglesby texted the child’s mother “a couple of good pictures that were previously stored on his phone,” according to the police report, KVVU said.
He then texted his sister that the child died because he had been whipped too hard.
Police said Oglesby smoked marijuana before calling 911. He told dispatchers who tried to instruct him on CPR that he had already tried it, with no results, and he refused to try again.
According to a police report on the incident, Oglesby told police that the incident that led to the child’s death began when the boy was watching a TV show he wasn’t allowed to see.
The child stopped breathing after being whipped by Oglesby with a cable box cord, according to a Henderson police arrest report. https://t.co/xTrBHDatdG
— WDAM 7 (@wdam) March 18, 2022
The child “back talked,” which led to a whipping with the cord that split the child’s chin, police said.
Another beating followed later that night when the child did not want to go to bed, police said.
Oglesby told police that he was concerned he had hit the child too hard because the boy was not acting normally. The child vomited and then stopped breathing.
Oglesby told police he delayed reporting the incident “because [police] would not understand his method of discipline,” the police report said.
Oglesby told police he has been using physical discipline on the child since he was awarded custody on February 2021, and that he had whipped the boy with a phone charging cord in December because the child talked back to him.
Police responding observed visible injuries to the child’s head and torso.
The boy was pronounced dead at the scene.
A neighbor said she heard loud noises from the apartment that sounded like someone being thrown about, and that the noises continued for about two hours. The neighbor said she tried to contact the apartment resident but did not call 911.