Father Charged After Infant Son Suffocates While Sleeping on Him

The child's mother told police she had warned the father that falling asleep with the baby on him was dangerous

A Pennsylvania father who said he fell asleep with his month-old son on his chest is facing charges after the infant suffocated and died.

Owen Labrenn Copney, 26, told police that on Sept. 17 he dozed off with his son on his chest and when he woke he noticed that the baby "had shifted from his chest and was now laying face down in the crook of his armpit," according to a criminal complaint by detectives in Westmoreland County, near Pittsburgh.

Copney told detectives that the child, Isaiah, was sweaty and not breathing, the complaint states.

The baby was treated by paramedics at the scene and then taken to the hospital where he died two days later, on Sept. 19. A medical examiner said the cause of death was sudden unexplained infant death.

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