The story dates back to three years ago but has now reached a US court where the parent must respond to two charges: one relating to the treadmill episode, the other to the death of the child, which occurred approximately ten days later due to a blunt force trauma.
An American father is accused of having subjected her 6-year-old son to various physical abusesamong which force him to run at extreme speeds on the treadmill in the gym, thus causing injuries that led to the child’s death. The case dates back to three years ago but has now reached court in New Jersey where the parent is facing two charges. One relates to the crime of child endangerment, relating to the treadmill episode, the other to death of the childwhich occurred approximately ten days later due to blunt force trauma.
According to the prosecution, 31-year-old Christopher Gregor knowingly caused serious bodily injury to the child, resulting in his death. In court, investigators brought their own the video of the video surveillance footage of the fitness center of the apartment complex where the man lived. In the video, the 31-year-old is seen forcing the child to run at unbearable speeds on the treadmill. The little boy falls several times, hitting the ground violently while his father forcefully drags him back onto the instrument. Gregor can be seen grabbing the child by the shirt and, at one point, appears to bite the child’s head.
The filming dates back to March 20, 2021. A few days later, the child’s mother, Breanna Micciolo, who shared custody of the child with her father from whom she was already separated, saw the child’s injuries and reported them to a social worker. On April 1 of the same year, the little boy was then taken to a doctor in front of whom he said that his his father had forced him to run on the treadmill because he thought he was “too fat”.
6-year-old boy hit and killed by a car in his driveway while he was playing
The following day the child’s condition worsened and the minor died after a futile trip to hospital. It was the same parent who took his son to the hospital after the boy woke up from a nap stumbling, slurring his words and feeling nausea and shortness of breath. The minor underwent an urgent CT scan in hospital, where however he began to have convulsions and died shortly afterwards.
The autopsy conducted by the medical examiner established that the little body had blunt force injuries with cardiac and hepatic contusions and acute inflammation with sepsis. According to the forensic medical report, the child suffered a tacute trauma to the heart 4-12 hours before his death. The doctor described that there was evidence of chronic abuse on the child, including blunt impact injuries to the chest and abdomen with laceration of the heart, contusion of the left lung, and laceration and contusion of the liver.
For the prosecution it is evidence of a murder but Gregor’s defense instead claims that the child’s death was due to “natural” reasons. Lawyer and party experts speak of a death caused by “complications from pneumonia”. The child’s mother, Breanna Micciolo, said she had reported Gregor for abuse more than a hundred times, but no one intervened.
