Escambia County Sheriff’s Office: Man admits to taking medicine before leaving 1-year-old in bathtub

Alexa Daly
·2 min read
2

Escambia County, Fla. (WKRG) — Tragedy happened on Shoal Creek Drive in Escambia County on Thursday afternoon as deputies received reports of a 1-year-old in cardiac arrest.

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Escambia County Sheriff’s Office deputies say 21-year-old Marc Basulto was alone in his home with his two children when he put his 1-year-old in a bathtub with the water running.

Basulto allegedly then took medication and went to sleep in another room.

According to deputies, Basulto was awakened by the sound of his other child crying and found the 1-year-old boy unresponsive in the full and overflowing bathtub.

The 1-year-old was transported to the hospital where he died.

Basulto was arrested.

“We feel like there are certain things as a parent or caregiver, someone that’s in a responsible position you have got to make sure that you do. This is a 1-year-old child — they cannot take care of themselves,” Sheriff Chip Simmons said. “Again it’s difficult as a community but we have to do our job and we feel like there’s a statute that’s been violated so we made the arrest.”

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The father allegedly told deputies he had taken Benadryl earlier in the day. The sheriff’s office says they will continue to investigate whether there was anything else in his system that may have contributed to him falling asleep.

Sheriff Chip Simmons described the incident as a terrible tragedy and a type of call that takes a toll on first responders.

“These are difficult cases for us to just handle and then go about our business on the next call, and next call, and next call. Difficult many times to just lay your head on the pillow and not think about that. Not have that run through your mind,” Simmons said.

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Basulto has been arrested for aggravated manslaughter involving the death of a child. He remains in the Escambia County Jail.

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