Florida woman charged after shaken baby suffers permanent brain damage

Russell (Marion County Sheriff's Office/Facebook)

MARION COUNTY, Fla. – Deputies have arrested a Dunnellon woman accused of shaking an infant to stop him from crying in an incident that left the child permanently brain damaged.

Rayven Annette Russell, 23, was booked Thursday on a aggravated child abuse charge into the Marion County jail, where she was being held in lieu of $10,000 bail, the Sheriff's Office said.

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Detectives were notified of the case Aug. 20 by child welfare workers. At the hospital, they found the victim tattered with bruises. He also had bleeding on his brain and two subdural hematomas.

Doctors concluded the one-month-old suffered the injuries, which deputies noted happened on Russell's watch, roughly a day before he was brought to the hospital.

Russell acknowledged growing so frustrated by the child's crying that she shook him to make it stop, deputies said. They noted she expressed remorse.

The child has been released from the hospital and placed with a medical caregiver.