A South Shore father has pleaded guilty to trying to drown his 2-year-old son in a bathtub, a crime that prosecutors said was stopped only because a concerned Lyft driver called 911, prompting Chicago police officers to force their way into the apartment and save the boy.
Jeremiah Campbell, 32, was sentenced to 12 years in prison by Judge Laura Ayala-Gonzalez in connection with the September 2023 attack. By law, he must serve 85% of the time.
Prosecutors said it all started around 10 a.m. on August 25, 2023, when a Lyft driver dropped Campbell and the child off in the 7700 block of South South Shore Drive. Almost immediately after the drop-off, the driver called 911, alarmed by statements Campbell allegedly made during the ride.
The driver told a 911 operator that Campbell was “talking about conspiracies and drowning his son… as a sacrifice to Jehovah.” At nearly the same time, 911 operators received a call from Campbell reporting that his 2-year-old son had drowned in a bathtub at the same address provided by the driver.
When officers arrived, no one answered repeated knocks at the apartment door. Looking through the windows, officers said they saw a man bent over a bathtub making what they described as “suspicious movements,” according to the report.
Believing a man was in the process of drowning a child, officers forced their way into the apartment. As they entered, Campbell pulled the boy from the bathtub.
“Coughs could be heard coming from” the child, who was “coughing up water,” according to the police report. Officers rushed the boy to waiting paramedics, who transported him to a hospital for treatment. He survived.
Prosecutors said Campbell was not supposed to be with the child because an active order of protection barred him from contact with the boy at the time of the incident.
Court records show Campbell was already on 36 months of probation stemming from an April 2021 domestic violence case involving the child’s mother and a man who tried to intervene. In that case, police said Campbell shoved the boy’s mother head-first into a wall during an argument about child support, then dragged her off a bed by her feet, causing her to fall onto her back.
When another man stepped in to stop the attack, Campbell bit his nose, tearing flesh from the man’s nostril, and bit two of his fingers, according to the report. Investigators said Campbell also grabbed a kitchen knife and threatened to kill both victims before the child’s mother convinced him to put the weapon down. Campbell ultimately pleaded guilty to aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and domestic battery.
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