Dad arrested in stabbing death of 2-year-old son (Robertsdale, Alabama)

It's not clear to me from the way this is written whether these parents were married or living together or not. We're only told that the mother lives in the same town and was not in the apartment complex when the fatal stabbing of this 2-year-old boy took place.

Makes me wonder if this was a custody/visitation situation, since the mother is not clearly identified as living in the same home as the father.

If so, it's pretty revealing that a father with a history of drug abuse and assault got custody/visitation rights anyway. But this is the way the family courts are going these days, despite fathers rights propaganda to the contrary. And now a little boy has suffered a horrible and violent death as a result.

Dad is identified as MICAH WILLIAM HARRISON.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20130110/NEWS06/130110003

Dad arrested after 2-year-old boy stabbed to death in Noblesville

8:27 AM, Jan 10, 2013

Written by The Indianapolis Star

An Alabama father faces a preliminary charge of murder after his 2-year-old son was stabbed in the head Wednesday afternoon at a luxury apartment complex in Noblesville.

Micah William Harrison, 30, Robertsdale, Ala., was arrested about 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Autumn Breeze Apartments, near Hamilton Town Center mall close to I-69 Exit 10.

Noblesville police and medics responded about 5 p.m. to a call in the 14000 block of Waterlily Drive. Harrison has extended family at the complex, police said.

Noblesville police spokesman Lt. Bruce Barnes said responders found the boy, Michael Harrison, dead at the scene, suffering one wound to the head consistent with a stabbing. Barnes did not know where in the apartment the child was found.

A motive remains unclear, he said.

Neighbors said there were two older girls in the apartment at the time of the incident. It's unclear where those two children are at this point.

Neighbors also said they saw the boy playing with the two girls outside earlier in the afternoon. One of the neighbors, an 11-year-old boy who said he rides the school bus with the two girls, said he saw the toddler run toward the street, and a man who was watching them yelled at him to come back. The 11-year-old said the man spanked the toddler on the way back to the apartment. He wasn't sure if the man is the boy's father.

Harrison has a litany of arrests and charges in Baldwin County in Alabama. A Baldwin County jail officer, who declined to give his name, said Harrison had been arrested for assault, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, unpaid traffic tickets and permitting dogs to run at large. His first arrest, the officer said, was in 2003, for minor in possession of alcohol.

The child’s mother, also from Robertsdale, was not at the complex when the stabbing happened.

The homicide investigation was turned over to the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office. An autopsy is expected Thursday.