On Monday (Oct. 3), Marcus McCowan Jr., 18, was arrested by the Odessa Police Department after going on a rampage in a hospital that left an infant injured. According to local news station KMID 2, the attack happened as the teen visited his girlfriend, who was in labor at the facility.
Officers responded to the scene around 6:30 p.m. By the time they arrived, McCowan had already caused chaos inside the hospital. According to reports, the young man initially approached a staff member at the nurse’s station and grabbed her by the arm while making an “unintelligible statement.” After being asked to leave, he acted “odd and unreasonable” and began running around the area.
Next, the 18-year-old set sights on a new mother who sat with her infant as she waited to be released from the hospital. However, once the woman moved and he could no longer see the child, his attention shifted. Nurses claim after McCowan lost interest in the newborn, he began stomping, then charged full speed at staff members while screaming.
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He ran into three nurses as he tried to break into the hospital’s nursery, knocking at least one down. The room that housed the newborns was locked. After unsuccessfully entering the room, McCowan refocused on the mother he’d seen earlier with the newborn. He snatched the child from the woman and took it into a room where a nurse claimed he choked the baby.
Hospital staff members tried to safely wrestle the baby out of the teen’s hands as the infant began to turn blue due to lack of oxygen. McCowan allegedly shook the baby and told it to “die.” Once police arrived at the scene, sources say the cops struggled to subdue the young man as he resisted arrest. Before being placed in handcuffs and taken away, he tried to grab one of the officer’s weapons from his holster.
McCowan was taken to the Ector County Law Enforcement Center, where his bond was set at $228,000. His charges include two counts of attempted capital murder, assault, assault of a public servant, resisting arrest, attempting to take a weapon from an officer, criminal trespass and possession of a controlled substance.