A New Jersey man has been arrested and charged after he allegedly abused his 6-year-old. In one of the alleged incidents, the man is accused of forcing his son to run on a treadmill.
A 6-year-old boy was pronounced dead on April 2, 2021, after his father – 29-year-old Christopher Gregor – took him to the hospital because he was experiencing nausea and shortness of breath. Later that day, the boy started to have seizures and passed away. Now, his father has been charged with murder and endangering the welfare of a child after it was found that the child had been subjected to abuse over a period of time.
During a post-mortem investigation, the Ocean County Medical Examiner’s Office found several bruises and hemorrhaging of the liver, CNN reports. The office determined the boy’s cause of death was “blunt impact injuries of the chest and abdomen with laceration of the heart.” The manner of death was determined to be a homicide.
In the affidavit, prosecutors say Gregor would weigh his son often, and the document states the boy’s mother said Gregor would make their son “run on the treadmill because he is fat.” Surveillance footage from a gym near where Gregor lives shows the father and son going into the gym. The boy can be seen running on the treadmill and falling off six times. Even though he keeps falling, Gregor appears to increase the treadmill’s speed, and the boy continues to fall. At one point in the footage, Gregor is seen picking the child up by his shirt and putting him back on the treadmill.
The mother and the child’s grandmother reported the alleged abuse to New Jersey’s Department of Child Protection and Permanency (DCP&P) several times in fear that Gregor was abusing the boy. CNN reports the mother took the unnamed child to a pediatrician after seeing the bruising on his body. Other incidents of abuse by Gregor include him throwing the child off a boat.
Gregor is being held without bail. His attorney claims Gregor “had nothing to do with the death of this child.”
