Child, 2, suffers multiple injuries

PALMER — Alaska State Troopers report a 37-year-old man was arrested Thursday, charged with assaulting a 2-year-old girl.

According to an affidavit investigator Sherry Ferno wrote, the case was reported at 4:06 p.m., Thursday by the Office of Children’s Services, which was making arrangements to bring the girl and her siblings to The Children’s Place for interviews.

Ferno writes that Thomas Youngblood on Wednesday, upset the girl had wet her pants, allegedly hit her three times hard enough to knock her to the ground.

The girl’s siblings told troopers that Youngblood had hit them before, including the 2-year-old. One spanking was bad enough to draw blood. Another time he broke a hairbrush over the girl’s head.

“The incident yesterday was the worst he’s ever seen,” one of the children told investigators Thursday.

Youngblood told the children, “not to tell anyone that he hit (the girl). If anyone asked about (the girl’s) injuries, (the siblings were) instructed to say (the girl) fell off the large tire that was outside and hurt herself,” Ferno wrote.

One of the kids actually tried to tell that exact story to investigators but later demonstrated how Youngblood had hit the girl.

The girl’s injuries included a black eye, a broken nose, bruises on her arms and legs, a bruise at the base of her nose and abrasions at the end of her nose, Ferno wrote.

After he was arrested, Youngblood agreed to talk to investigators.

“Thomas denied hitting (the girl). Thomas did say he pushed (her) on the butt to get her moving. Thomas stated (the girl) fell from a tractor tire she was playing on in the yard,” Ferno wrote.

Youngblood was charged with multiple felony assault charges. He was jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-trial Facility. As of Saturday afternoon he was still incarcerated.