LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) — The Lakeland Police Department arrested a woman for the death of her own six-month-old, according to Chief Sammy Taylor Jr.

Lakeland police said that at about 11:39 p.m. on June 29, officers responded to a report of an unresponsive baby named Jeremiah Peters at a home on West Chestnut Drive.

Officers spoke with the baby’s mother, Tatiana Norman, while Lakeland Fire Department personnel performed first aid on the child. Polk County EMS took Jeremiah to Lakeland Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:32 on June 30.

At the time, the officers did not see evidence of external injuries or malnourishment, except for an unexplained mark on the baby’s left thigh.

“When officers spoke to Ms. Norman at the scene, she relayed that she placed Jeremiah in bed while she went to prepare a bottle,” Taylor said. “When she returned, she found Jeremiah had fallen off the bed onto the tile floor.”

However, she later changed her story when detectives interviewed her again, this time saying that she was sleeping in the bed with Jeremiah and her 1-year-old and that they might have rolled onto the baby. She also claimed the mark on Jeremiah’s leg was from bath water that was too hot.

An autopsy of Jeremiah’s body showed that his mother’s stories were inconsistent with the injuries observed on the baby’s body. It also found that the mark on Jeremiah’s thigh was not from hot bathwater and was instead from a “a more significant thermal event.”

On July 1, detectives confronted Norman with the autopsy findings. Taylor said Norman then confessed that Jeremiah suffered injuries throughout the day of his death.

According to an arrest affidavit, Norman told detectives at 9 a.m. that day that she accidentally dropped her son face-first while reaching for a remote. Instead of getting medical attention, Norman looked up concussion symptoms on her phone before monitoring at home.

Detectives said Norman also admitted that Jeremiah later fell from his rocking bassinet her 1-year-old climbed into it, causing it to fall over. Once again, Jeremiah fell face-first.

Norman lied again about Jeremiah’s burn injury, first claiming it was from laundry detergent that the baby’s father used on his clothes. When detectives showed the autopsy evidence, she admitted to spilling microwave noodle broth on his leg, according to the affidavit.

“Norman advised she contacted Jeremiah’s pediatrician via telephone regarding that injury,” the document stated. “It should be noted that the injury to Jeremiah’s leg is not consistent with any of the statements provided to law enforcement.”

Detectives said Norman later admitted that at about 1 p.m., she became overwhelmed with her crying children and then “intentionally ‘tossed’ or ‘threw’ Jeremiah into a playpen from a standing position” from several feet away.

During her explanation, she first demonstrated throwing her baby underhand and then showed her throwing Jeremiah overhand.

“I understand, I have had children, that you get frustrated, and you get overwhelmed sometimes, but there’s different ways to handle that,” Taylor said. “And throwing a child and killing this little man is not appropriate.”

According to police, the baby hit the playpen, which did not have a cushion on the bottom, with his back and head.

Norman told detectives that after being thrown, Jeremiah did not cry. He opened his eyes briefly and curled his fingers in a clenching motion.

“When she threw the infant into the playpen, a visceral and obvious reaction of curling his hands and pulling his hands up, I think that’s probably when the significant injury occurred,” Taylor said.

After this incident, the baby was said to become more lethargic and did not drink as much formula as he usually did. Still, Norman did not seek medical attention for Jeremiah.

An examination of Norman’s cellphone showed she searched on Google multiple times about concussion symptoms in babies. Some of these include “baby feels cold” at 2:10 p.m., and “what happens when baby had concussion in Florida” at about 2:14 p.m., before switching to watching two TikTok videos, one of them a cooking video at 3:34 p.m.

The affidavit showed she accessed that cooking video multiple times until 4:23 p.m.

Detectives also found that as Jeremiah’s condition continued to worsen, Norman accessed pornographic websites over 30 times instead of getting him medical attention.

The affidavit stated that Jeremiah’s father texted Norman for a photo of his son at about 10 p.m., but he did not hear back from her before later learning that his son was no longer breathing.

According to the Lakeland Police Chief, it is likely that Jeremiah was dead long before Norman finally called 911.

“I think the child was probably deceased hours before she called us, just based on the evidence and the temperature of the body and the temperature a child should be,” Taylor said. “The normal temperature of a child is somewhere around 90 degrees. I think the child’s temperature when he got to the emergency room was 94, so I feel like he’d been dead for several hours by the time she decided to call us.”

“I think she was trying to work through her mind, ‘how do I minimize this?’ is my assumption,” he added.

The Polk County Medical Examiner’s Office said if baby Jeremiah had received medical attention immediately, he might not have died.

The affidavit stated she confessed to hiding the events of Jeremiah’s death due to the consequences of her actions and that she felt feelings of depression, suicidal thoughts, and a history of PTSD and borderline personality disorder.

“She stated she was overstimulated, overwhelmed, and not receiving help at home, which led her to commit acts of rage and frustration against Jeremiah,” the document stated.

Norman has been charged with one count of aggravated child abuse, but the charges could be upgraded depending on the prosecution’s investigation.