According to KPD spokeswoman Carroll Smith, a suspect in the assault has been identified as an employee of the day care center.
“He is just a suspect, and he has not been charged with anything,” Smith said.
In a press release issued Monday, Smith said that a woman brought her 4-month-old infant daughter to Darnall Army Medical Center last Wednesday for what was apparently suspicious bruising.
Officers were called to the hospital at 9:45 p.m. and met with a doctor who said that the child had bruising that is consistent with sexual assault.
The Little Blessings Day care Center, 803 N. 10th St. in Killeen, where the assault is alleged to have happened, cares for 22 children daily.
“I am the one who showed the mom,” said Nishea Porter, one of the center’s caregivers. “When I saw it, I didn’t think anything of it. I asked her if the baby had a diaper rash, and she said ‘no.’”
Porter said she documented the incident and described the incident with the child’s mother as uneventful at first.
“After I told her, she started pacing around, panting and fanning herself,” Porter said.
Porter added that an official from Child Protective Services came by and questioned her about the injury the next day.
The mother of the child was also present at that meeting, Porter said.
“She was sitting right there and agreed to everything I said to him.”
Meanwhile, inside the center, children play and are looked after by employees and the center’s owner Jacqueline Haile.
But outside, signs cover areas of the fence facing the street, calling the child’s mother a rapist.
Porter said the mother started the whole thing when she came out and accused day care workers of raping the child.
“Since she blindly accused us, and the investigation is still open, we went out and did the exact same thing,” Porter said. “There is nothing pinpoint that says she was molested here.”
Porter said employees have subjected themselves to cheek swabs for DNA testing.
Killeen Police are still investigating the case.
bkirk@temple-telegram.com
