A man has been arrested in the Friday death of an infant girl in Fairbanks.
Zackry Johnson, 31, has been charged with second-degree murder.
Fairbanks police and medics responded Friday morning to a call in the Aurora Subdivision, according to a police statement.
The 1-year-old child had multiple injuries to her body, consistent with being assaulted. The child’s mother told police she had gone in to wake the baby and found her dead.
She said she had left her children with Johnson, her live-in boyfriend, the previous day while she was at work. When she came home late, the man told her the child was sleeping.
Police said Johnson waived his Miranda rights during an interview, initially telling investigators the infant had been “play fighting” with her 6-year-old sister Thursday night.
After police told Johnson that the infant’s injuries were inconsistent with that account, they said he eventually “acknowledged using too much force as he was trying to get her to take a nap so that he could play video games.”
“He demonstrated several of the actions he used on the child and further acknowledged his actions likely (led) to the death of the girl,” police wrote.
Johnson was held at the Fairbanks Correctional Center.
Anyone with further information on the infant’s death is asked to contact detectives at fpdinvestigations@fairbanks.us or 907-450-6550.
Fairbanks police urge anyone who suspects a child is being abused to call local police, Alaska State Troopers or the Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-478-4444.
