Alamo man arrested for shaking 1-year-old boy, causing brain hemorrhage

Hugo Salazar (Hidalgo County Jail)

ALAMO, Texas (ValleyCentral) — An Alamo man remained in jail Friday for allegedly shaking a 1-year-old boy, causing a brain hemorrhage, documents show.

Hugo Armando Salazar, 24, was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault on a child, according to Hidalgo County Jail records.

A probable cause affidavit states that on May 1 at 2:52 p.m., officers were dispatched to the 1100 block of Mariposa Drive in Alamo for a report of a child being injured. Officers met with a child welfare investigator who said he was investigating the case of a child who had fallen out of bed on April 29.

The child was initially taken to the Alamo Freestanding Emergency Room with a brain hemorrhage and then flown by helicopter to Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi, the document says.

Alamo police spoke with the child’s mother, who gave “conflicting statements” about the incident. She declined to provide information about her boyfriend, identified as Salazar, according to the affidavit.

Investigators received a statement from Salazar in which he denied any abuse of the child and noted that he had been “misleading on several occasions” in his testimony.

The affidavit states that the child’s mother gave a second statement in which she said she saw Salazar shaking the child after an argument in his home.

“She states that (Salazar) took her one-year-old child and shook him with both hands while carrying him through the air in a back and forth motion,” the affidavit states.

She said the child then began having seizures and was taken to the emergency room.

Investigators spoke with doctors at the hospital, who said the injuries were consistent with a traumatic brain injury caused by acceleration and deceleration. They added that the injuries could not have been caused by a fall from bed.

Salazar was booked into the Hidalgo County Jail on Tuesday. He remains in custody as of Friday morning, with bail set at $15,000.