Wichita police presented their case to prosecutors on Friday, said Dan Dillon, a spokesman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, noting the case is “under consideration,” Mashable reports. How quickly prosecutors will determine the matter isn’t clear just yet.
The child, who was not breathing when his mother found him, was taken by his mother to the hospital Tuesday night after she found her boyfriend performing CPR. The boy is still in a “very delicate situation,” said police Lt. James Espinoza, according to Wichita Eagle.
Doctors successfully removed the small, dead octopus from the boy’s throat. The head of the creature was about two inches in diameter. It’s likely the octopus was going to wind up on the dinner table, because police noted it wasn’t a pet.
The hospital alerted police because the boyfriend’s account of how the boy swallowed the octopus, sustaining minor injuries to his face allegedly wasn’t consistent with the evidence, Espinoza said.
The boyfriend, identified as Matthew Gallagher, 36, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of alleged child abuse, USA Today reports. Gallagher was released on bond the next day.
Gallagher and the boy were at home alone while the child’s mother was at work, ABC Eyewitness News notes.
Investigators said he was home alone with the boy while the child’s mother was working.
