Dead child’s mother panicked when she saw CPR being performed. But her husband insisted the baby was OK

A 911 call made as an off-duty firefighter tried to revive Ethan Thompson sheds light on the moments before the 22-month-old’s death, including some of the words exchanged between his mother and stepfather.

Montez Charles McNeal, the toddler’s stepfather, has been charged with aggravated child abuse for injuries detectives say he inflicted on Ethan and that caused his death. A decision on any additional charges has not yet been made.

On the night of Nov. 14 as McNeal’s wife, Ethan’s mother, arrived on the scene, McNeal pleaded with her that the boy was OK.

“You’re doing CPR. Lord Jesus have mercy,” the panicked mother said on a recording of the 911 call.

But McNeal insisted: “He’s OK. His heart rate is OK.”

Only seconds before his wife had arrived, when McNeal asked the firefighter about the boy’s breathing and heart rate, he had been told, “I’m doing all of it for him.”

The investigation of Ethan’s death remains ongoing by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office as detectives continue with follow-up interviews, according to spokesman Dave Bristow. No decision has been made on whether McNeal will face a homicide charge, but the case is being reviewed by Assistant State Attorney Art Brown, who prosecutes homicide cases.

Preliminary autopsy results revealed that Ethan’s injuries at the time of his death included seven broken ribs at different stages of healing, a skull fracture at the crown of his head and cuts and bruises on his penis.

McNeal told detectives he took the boy into the shower when he became unresponsive and that he slipped and fell on top of Ethan. But when asked to reenact the scenario, he couldn’t in a way that explained the fracture at the crown of the boy’s head.

McNeal remains in custody at the Manatee County jail. He is being held on a $250,000 bond.

The stepfather has a history of violence, and a protective injunction barring him from the home was still in place at the time of Ethan’s death.

Child protection investigators had received a report on Nov. 1 that he was still there, but an investigator with the sheriff’s office’s Child Protection Investigation Division reported finding no evidence of that.

At 11:34 p.m. Nov. 14, the Manatee County Emergency Communications Center received a dropped 911 call. A dispatcher called back and was able to reach the off-duty Bradenton firefighter who was trying to help Ethan.

“Literally, a neighbor came out to me as I am driving down the street with the little boy. He has a thready pulse and he gave him some medicine,” the firefighter said. “But right now I have an unresponsive 1-year-old with a thready pulse. He’s breathing but very faint.”

Just 2 1/2 minutes into the 911 call, Ethan stopped breathing. The firefighter handed the phone over as he began CPR and waited for an ambulance to arrive.

More than a minute passed before McNeal came up to the firefighter and asked about Ethan.

“How’s he doing? I just need to know he’s going to be OK,” McNeal said.

The firefighter asked him what kind of medicine he had given Ethan.

“I don’t know, it’s for a cold,” McNeal said. “His mom is coming. Oh my God. I just came over because he wasn’t doing good. ... Please bring him back, Lord.”

McNeal continued to ask how Ethan was doing, as the firefighter performed CPR.

After his wife arrived, she panicked at the sight of CPR being performed on Ethan and within seconds began screaming profanity. The firefighter told her she needed to calm down and questioned her about the medication Ethan was taking.

The distressed mother said Ethan had a cold and she had given him amoxicillin, which investigators would later learn was from an expired prescription for someone else.

“No. No. No,” she began to scream again.

“Baby, no,” McNeal shouted as she began screeching. “Babe, don’t believe that. Babe, he’s OK.”

The firefighter again asked her to calm down: “He can still hear you. You’re the momma.”

McNeal can be heard in the background with an insistence in his tone of voice: “Babe, I put him in the shower, babe.”

“Come on, little man,” the firefighter said.

Seconds later, the ambulance arrived.

This story was originally published November 29, 2016 at 1:58 PM with the headline "Dead child’s mother panicked when she saw CPR being performed. But her husband insisted the baby was OK."