FAIRMONT, W.Va. – A child is life sustaining after police said they were abused by a man in a Fairmont home.

On March 4, according to a criminal complaint, Fairmont Police Department officials responded to a call from an unresponsive boy who was “not breathing” at a house on 1001 1/2 Green St., Fairmont.

On arrival, emergency services began providing assistance to the boy but had to take him to WVU Medicine Fairmont for treatment, officials said.

When the child arrived, “the adolescent was found to have recently suffered multiple blunt violent injuries to various parts of the body,” including “bruises on the arms, bruises on the right hip, broken and missing teeth, and a shoe-print bruise on the right shoulder” , it says in the complaint.

With the extensive injuries, he was taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital, where “it was determined that there were other serious internal injuries” that resulted in the child “having to be intubated,” officials said.

Walter Richardson

When speaking with the attending physician, officers learned that the boy “did not respond to light, touch, or other stimuli” and had “little to no obvious brain activity,” which resulted in the boy being “placed on a ventilator.” to sustain life ”. ”According to complaint.

As a result, Walter Richardson, 33, of Fairmont, was arrested for the abuse the boy suffered because the boy was “in the complete care, custody and control” of Richardson at the time of the incident.

During a search of the house where the incident occurred, officers found an AR-15-style Diamondback rifle that was returned as stolen by NCIC. When the officers carried out Richardson’s ID, they found that “there is an active warrant against him,” which according to the criminal complaint prohibits him from being in possession of a firearm.

Richardson has been charged with child molestation which resulted in serious injuries, malicious wounds and the receipt / transfer of stolen goods. He is being held in the North Central Regional Jail on bail for $ 500,012.