Minneapolis father charged with severely beating his baby daughter

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman made it personal Friday as he discussed a man accused of severely beating his 21-month-old daughter.

In what appeared to be a single incident, Rae'Ana Hall suffered traumatic brain injury, broken ribs, fractured pelvis, lacerated spleen and kidney and multiple hemorrhages, he said.

Freeman has a 2-year-old grandson — nearly the same age as Rae'Ana. He would do anything for the boy, he said, and couldn't imagine how anybody could treat a toddler that way.

"We are going to do justice by this child," he said.

The father, Ticortier Collins, 21, of Minneapolis, was charged Friday with first-degree assault. Freeman's office is seeking a $1 million bail, usually reserved for murder suspects. If convicted, Freeman said he would ask for an enhanced penalty because of the severity of the injuries, sending Collins to prison for more than a dozen years.

"He just lost it," Freeman said. "This just isn't acceptable."

According to the charges, Collins brought Rae'Ana Hall to Hennepin County Medical Center Sunday because she was wheezing and her lips turned purple. He initially told a social worker he brought the baby to his uncle's house, where she "bumped heads" with another one of his children.

When officers spoke to Rae'Ana's mother, she told them Collins had recently come back into their lives. He called her at work Sunday to say he had been playing video games and noticed Rae'Ana wasn't feeling good, the charges said.

Freeman said Collins gave officers several different versions of what happened to his daughter. One story had him at his uncle's, where Rae'Ana bumped heads with another child. He went out to buy some marijuana, and when he returned, she was wheezing. He suggested there was a sex offender at his uncle's house who had a history of "doing things to children in the past," the charges said.

In another story, Collins claimed he left the baby with a girl he was seeing. He went to buy marijuana and left her there for three hours. She was injured when he returned, the charges said.

But apartment surveillance video showed Collins left for about an hour. He is also seen frantically making contact with a neighbor, who took Collins and his daughter to the hospital.

On Thursday, Collins admitted to police that he didn't know why he lied before, the charges said. When asked about Rae'Ana's injuries, he said she ran into the bathroom, slipped and fell. He laid her on a bed and observed she was acting "differently."