'Unresponsive and gasping': Man nearly beats girlfriend's toddler daughter to death, says girl's horrific injuries were 'allergic reaction,' cops say

Left: Howard Dewayne Walker Jr.'s mug shot. Right: Walker after his arrest for allegedly beating his girlfriend's toddler daughter (Beaumont Police Department).

A Texas man is behind bars after he allegedly beat his girlfriend's 1-year-old daughter, causing near fatal injuries to the girl as her mother was at a doctor's appointment for pregnancy-related pain.

Howard Dewayne Walker Jr., 28, faces a charge of injury to a child with serious bodily injury, the Beaumont Police Department said. Cops responded around 1 p.m. Tuesday to a hospital after the girl arrived in critical condition and "exhibiting signs consistent with child abuse." The child was then airlifted to a hospital in Houston.

According to an arrest affidavit posted by local CBS affiliate KFDM, detectives noted the girl was "intubated and unresponsive with severe facial swelling, bruising to the chest and abdomen, dried blood in/around the left ear, and multiple small circular burn-like lesions and healing lacerations on the inner thighs and left arm."

Cops later learned that the girl's mother left the girl and another child with Walker shortly before 10 a.m. to go to the doctor. Sometime later, Walker texted his girlfriend about the incident. She had some of her family members come to the home to check out what was happening.

They described a horrific scene.

"Witnesses said she was largely unresponsive and gasping, with a swollen eye and dark marks on her body," the affidavit stated. "They reported seeing Walker applying a frozen orange juice can to the infant's face and described patterned bruising to the face, chest, and abdomen."

When cops arrived, they noted the home smelled "strongly of bleach" and saw a mop and wet floors in an apparent attempt to clean up blood. Officers initially detained Walker on municipal warrants. Post-Miranda, he claimed he was not at home when the girl suffered the injuries, first blaming a babysitter and then his girlfriend.

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Walker then admitted to being the lone adult with the girl when she suffered her injuries, cops wrote. He allegedly blamed the victim's swelling on an "allergic reaction." Walker offered no "plausible" explanations for the girl's injuries.

Doctors later told detectives she had facial fractures, a liver laceration and active internal bleeding.

"The clinician advised the injuries were consistent with inflicted trauma requiring significant force, not accidental mechanisms or allergic reaction," detectives wrote.

The girl was last listed in critical condition.

Walker is in the Jefferson County Correctional Facility on a $1 million bond.