-- A man who police say punched and kicked his 2-year-old son to death on a country road outside Turlock calmly told motorists who stopped at the scene that he had to "get the demons out" of the child, a witness said today.
The man, a 27-year-old Turlock resident, told people who tried to stop him that the boy was "trash," said Lisa Mota, 23.
The Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department identified the man today as Sergio Casian Aguilar. A Modesto police officer shot him to death Saturday night as Aguilar beat and stomped the boy on a two-lane road 10 miles southwest of downtown Turlock, authorities said.
What prompted Aguilar to carry out the attack is still not known. Authorities do not know whether he was drunk or on drugs, and toxicology reports on him and his son will not be available for three to four weeks, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Royjindar Singh.
Aguilar had no criminal history, Singh said. "From what we can tell, he's never been arrested," Singh said.
Mota said Aguilar didn't stop beating the boy, or even appear concerned, when the Modesto police officer arrived in a helicopter that touched down in a cow pasture and ordered him to stop at gunpoint. When Aguilar raised his middle finger and resumed kicking the boy, Officer Jerry Ramar killed him with a single shot to the forehead, authorities said.
"He wasn't acting like a crazy person, running around or screaming," Mota said. "He said, 'I've just got to get the demons out of him.' He was very calm.' "
The boy was beaten beyond recognition. His name has not yet been released. DNA tests will be conducted on him, Aguilar and the boy's mother to confirm their relationship, Singh said.
The boy's mother and Aguilar are married but separated, authorities said. She was out of town Saturday night when Aguilar killed his son, Singh said.
The attack shocked Stanislaus County residents. Mota said she saw a counselor this morning to talk about what she witnessed, but wasn't ready to talk publicly about the details of the beating.
"Even having witnessed it, I still can't believe it happened," she said. "I don't think it's ever going to leave my mind. For someone like me who is about to start a family, it's a fear that there's people out there like that - that even have the thought to kill a child."
Singh said incident began when Aguilar stopped his pickup truck near a dairy ranch along West Bradbury Road in an unincorporated area west of Turlock. The road, which extends straight west of Highway 99, has no street lights.
Aguilar "had tunnel vision" as witnesses and law enforcement officials tried to get him to stop, Singh said.
"As people tried to intervene, to tackle him, he just went back to what he was doing," Singh said. "Anything and everything he could do to the baby, that's what he was doing."
This morning, the narrow, cracked roadway was stained with blood, and one neighbor had attached a teddy bear to a nearby stop sign.
Singh said an elderly couple driving along West Bradbury Road made the first 911 call to police just after 10 p.m., reporting that Aguilar's Toyota pickup truck was parked facing west in the eastbound lane. The caller said there was a man behind the truck, brutally beating a boy.
The couple had poor cell phone reception and did not give authorities a precise location, delaying the response by a few minutes, Singh said. But soon, he said, others called as well, and some witnesses stopped and tried to halt the attack on the boy as Aguilar shook, punched, kicked and stomped him.
"One (person) tried to intervene, and the suspect pushed him off and continued assaulting the baby," Singh said.
By 10:13 p.m., a county dispatcher had confirmed the correct location and broadcast it, Singh said, but it was so remote that the first officers to arrive were aboard a Sheriff's Department helicopter that had been patrolling over Turlock. The pilot, a sheriff's deputy, and Ramar, the Modesto police officer, landed in a cow pasture just off the roadway about 10:19 p.m., Singh said.
Ramar then ran about 20 yards toward Aguilar and, while standing behind the pasture's fence, ordered him to stop beating the boy, who was on the ground, Singh said.
"He refuses to comply with the orders, and the officer fires," Singh said. Aguilar was pronounced dead at the scene.
Firefighters from a nearby station arrived a few minutes later and tried to resuscitate the child. The boy was taken to Emanuel Medical Center in Turlock, but died on the way.
By the time the ambulance had left the scene, Singh said, almost a dozen people had witnessed some part of the incident.
"The two officers on the helicopter, they were pretty shook up about it," Singh said. "We have to kind of expect this in our line of work. But for people who were just driving home, they weren't prepared for this. They're watching a helpless baby die in front of them and they're trying to intervene, but all their efforts aren't doing anything."
