A 23-year-old Orange Park man is sitting in the Clay County jail without bond, accused of fatally shaking a child who was in his sole care back in July. Anthony Bryce Thompson was arrested Oct. 2 and now faces one count of aggravated manslaughter of a child, nearly three months after the child he was watching died.
According to Action News Jax, deputies were first called to a home on July 15 after a report of a child choking. When they arrived, Thompson himself escorted deputies to the child, who was already unresponsive. Clay County Fire Rescue rushed the child to HCA Orange Park, and from there the child was flown by helicopter to Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville.
What Investigators Initially Believed
At the time the child was hospitalized, authorities initially believed the incident was medical-related, the station’s report notes, and conclusive testing had not yet been completed. The child died that same day, July 15. It would take nearly three more months of investigation before Thompson was taken into custody.
The arrest report, as described by the outlet, states that the child’s injury was ultimately determined to be abusive head trauma likely caused by severe acceleration and deceleration, commonly known as shaking. Per the same account, investigators found that the severity of the injury showed a grossly careless disregard for the child’s safety. The report also identified Thompson as the adult and sole caregiver of the child at the time of the fatal injury.
Charge Carries Weight Under Florida Law
Thompson is now charged with one count of aggravated manslaughter of a child. Under Florida law, a person who causes the death of someone under 18 through culpable negligence as described in state statute can be charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, a first-degree felony.
As of Tuesday, Thompson remained in Clay County jail on no bond, the article reports. He is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 3, according to Clay County jail records cited in the report.
A Broader Pattern Behind the Diagnosis
Cases like Thompson’s fit into a grim national pattern tracked by federal health officials. The CDC describes abusive head trauma as a leading cause of child-abuse deaths among children under five. A separate CDC report found that abusive head trauma accounts for roughly one-third of all maltreatment fatalities among infants and young children nationwide, according to the agency’s data.
Other Florida cases this year have followed similarly disturbing timelines, where injuries first treated as medical emergencies were later tied to abuse. In April, a Florida man was accused of abusing a 7-month-old infant, leaving the child with serious brain injuries that required emergency surgery, as reported by FOX 35 Orlando. A separate case out of Volusia County, detailed by WESH, saw a man charged with manslaughter after his son died, a case connected to a 2023 child-abuse investigation.
