A Cannon Falls, Minn., man remains jailed on suspicion of fracturing the skull of a 2-year-old girl who died Sunday, four days after she was taken from his home by ambulance.

Justin David Lake, 29, was caring for the daughter of his girlfriend, Tabitha Hanson, when she sustained a traumatic brain injury, according to a criminal complaint filed in Goodhue County last week.

Lake told police that the girl had fallen while jumping on a bed. Medical professionals, however, said her injury was more consistent with being shoved into a door frame or hit in the head with a hard object such as a baseball bat.

Officials are awaiting autopsy results before weighing whether to upgrade the charges. Cannon Falls police are investigating the circumstances around the injury, which led to the girl's death July 5 at St. Marys Hospital in Rochester.

Cannon Falls Police Chief Jeff McCormick would not release the child's name, saying the case remains under investigation.

The criminal complaint filed in Goodhue County provides these details:

Lake had encouraged Hanson to leave her daughter with him while she went shopping in Red Wing. The tot, who would have turned 3 next week, did not like Lake because "he disciplined her," the mother later told police. But Lake had encouraged Hanson to allow him to spend time with the little girl to get her to "warm up" to him.

Just after 8 p.m., Lake called police. He told the first officer who arrived of watching his girlfriend's daughter when she fell while jumping on a bed. He said he found her lying face down, reaching up to him. She was dizzy, Lake told police, so he carried her to a couch.

Police noted that Lake was pacing nervously and kept repeating that the child was often getting hurt, and that she had bumped her head earlier in the day.

The officer found the child lying on her back on the couch, her eyes half-open and a large bump on her forehead. An emergency medical technician who lives nearby and heard the 911 call had raced to the scene.

The toddler was taken to Cannon Falls Medical Center. A helicopter flew her to St. Marys, where she underwent brain surgery.

Joy Powell • 952-882-9017