PHOENIX—Two boys who suffered extensive head injuries in an attack at a west Phoenix park appeared to have been beaten with a baseball bat and weren’t expected to survive, police said Wednesday.
Shirts containing red stains and an aluminum baseball bat were found by investigators at the nearby home of a man who was booked in the attack, according to a police probable cause statement filed in court.
“We don’t know the motive,” Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Tommy Thompson said in an interview. “He followed these two boys to the park and bludgeoned them.”
Joe Sauceda Gallegos, 36, made an initial court appearance on two counts of child abuse and dangerous crimes against children in Tuesday’s attacks on 7-year-old Jesse Ramirez and 10-year-old Edwin Pellecier. The hospital treating the boys declined to release their medical status. Police said the boys were in extremely critical condition.
Gallegos, who was being held in jail on a $1 million cash bond, hasn’t yet been assigned an attorney. There was no immediate response to a request by The Associated Press to interview Gallegos in jail. Gallegos told police he had no knowledge of the attack.
The boys, who are cousins, had gone to the small community park to play and were attacked around midday Tuesday. A neighbor found them in lying in a sandy area near a playground slide, called for help and provided aid until authorities arrived.
As police searched the neighborhood for witnesses, they said they discovered that a man had a video camera in front of his house that had captured images of boys walking toward the park, followed a minute later by a man carrying an object that looked like a bat.
Investigators who went to Gallegos’ house noted that he appeared nervous and that his appearance was similar to that of the man in the surveillance video. Gallegos told police that he hadn’t seen anything unusual.
Gallegos, who was cited for misdemeanor assault in early October after getting in a fight at a restaurant, was arrested for not showing up for a court date.
Police said Gallegos had an odor of chlorine on his hands and stains that appeared to be blood on his shoes. A search of his house turned up the shirts containing red stains and an aluminum baseball bat, and he was then booked on the new assault charges. He declined to talk further with investigators.
Gallegos’ uncle told police that he believed Gallegos had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic.
The uncle also said Gallegos had told authorities about six months ago that he killed his sons in his attic, but police never found any such victims at the house. Gallegos’ sons live with their mother in Colorado and are the same ages of the boys who were attacked at the park.
Police believe that Gallegos acted alone.
