KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Knoxville man reportedly tied his 3-week-old child's mother's dreadlock to the lid of a smoker and told her "he wanted to see her burn" before squeezing their infant until he was unresponsive over the weekend, according to the Knoxville Police Department.
It happened on Lilac Avenue on Saturday around 10:39 p.m.
Keotric Tucker, 28, faces a slew of charges including child abuse, neglect, endangerment of a child less than eight years old, domestic and aggravated assault, and attempted second-degree murder.
According to a police report, Tucker showed up at the home on Lilac Avenue unexpectedly and told the mother of their 3-week-old that he wanted their son. She refused to give him their son because, according to the report, she was changing his diaper. At that point, he allegedly grabbed her by the neck with both hands and tried strangling her on a bed in the room.
After strangling her, the report said he took their son and started to leave. She chased after him to get her son back and he allegedly handed the infant off to his 7-year-old child, grabbed the mother by her neck with both hands and slammed her against the hood of a vehicle.
The report said she had difficulty breathing while his hands were squeezing her neck.
According to the report, he grabbed her by the hair, started dragging her to the back of the house, and she tried to get free so he punched her in the temple.
He then dragged her by the dreadlocks to the back of the home where, the report said, he picked her up and tried to throw her into a large steel smoker that had a fire inside several times.
When she tried to close the smoker so he wouldn't put her in there, he told her he wanted to see her burn, according to the report. He then tied her dreadlock to the lid of the smoker and returned to the front of the home.
The report said during the altercation, he bit her ear through the cartilage and bit her right arm.
She broke free and ran from the back of the home to the front yard looking for her son and the report said he grabbed her by the neck with both hands and slammed her against the hood of the vehicle and squeezed her neck.
He grabbed his son from the child's mother in the yard and had his arms wrapped around the infant and was squeezing him to the point that he stopped screaming and became limp. The infant was unresponsive until an officer pried his arms off the infant, according to the report.
The infant sustained redness and bruising on his abdomen and back area and was transported to the University of Tennessee Medical Center for treatment.
The woman was transported to the University of Tennessee Medical Center for treatment. She had a large contusion and swelling on the temple area and had bleeding behind her eye.