YORK COUNTY, Pa. — A York County man has been charged with felony counts of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children after police say he held a two-year-old boy's hand under hot water until the skin peeled off the boy's fingers.
Shane Douglas McKinsey, 31, of the first block of Beck Mill Road in Penn Township, was charged after the investigation of an incident that occurred around 7:30 p.m. on June 23, Penn Township Police say.
According to police, a caller contacted them to report the boy had been burned. Officers dispatched to the scene found the victim and saw his right hand appeared to have four fingers burned to the point that the skin was sloughing off, according to the criminal complaint affidavit.
The boy was flown by helicopter to the Johns Hopkins Hospital Children's Burn Unit in Baltimore.
Police learned that McKinsey was alone with the child prior to his injuries, according to the complaint.
In an interview with police, McKinsey said he brought the victim to the sink to clean up and play after the child spat juice on his toys and the floor. While the boy was at the sink with the water running, McKinsey said, he left to use the bathroom.
When he returned, the boy's fingers were red, McKinsey told police.
Police then gave McKinsey facts about water temperature and burns, and he changed his story, admitting his first version of events was a lie, the criminal complaint states.
He then told police that when he found the boy had been spitting juice on his toys and the floor, McKinsey picked him up, and the boy spat in his face.
At that point, McKinsey told police, he "just snapped," the complaint says.
McKinsey told police he took the boy to the sink, turned on the hot water, and held the boy's hand under it, according to the complaint. McKinsey told police he repeatedly held the boy's hand in the water, pulling it out briefly before returning it under the water again.
McKinsey allegedly told police he stopped once he saw skin was falling off the boy's fingers, the complaint says.
