Man Charged After 3-Year-Old Found With Severe Burns

TAMPA, FL — A man was arrested Wednesday on a charge of aggravated child abuse and others related to an incident in which a 3-year-old victim suffered second-degree burns. Christopher Reddick, 19, faces child abuse charges along with weapons charges.

According to a release from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to Tampa General Hospital on Feb. 5 on a report that the toddler had suffered multiple second-degree burns a day earlier.

Authorities said the child's mother was at work while Reddick was watched children in an apartment on Silver Run Drive in Tampa. Reddick told the mother he had used all the hot water in the shower, so he boiled a pot of water on the stove for the child's bath, the release says.

Reddick told authorities that he was carrying the pot of hot water to the bathroom when the victim's younger sibling walked in front of him, causing him to spill the water into the tub and onto the victim, the release says. Reddick "became argumentative and left" when detectives confronted him about his account of the incident, the police report said.

Emergency room doctors told investigators that the child's severe burns appeared to be consistent with being submerged into scalding hot water.

Reddick was arrested Feb. 12 on charges of aggravated child abuse with great bodily harm and child neglect with great bodily harm. The sheriff also said Reddick faces charges of carrying a concealed firearm and possession of a firearm with a serial number removed after authorities found a gun in his pocket.

"I am sickened by the thought of someone intentionally hurting a young child. Christopher Reddick's actions could scar this child for life, both mentally and physically," Sheriff Chad Chronister said in the release.