Texas Man Killed Toddler Because She Interrupted Video Game, Say Police

A North Texas man may have killed his 2-year-old daughter in a “fit-of-rage-type” deal after she interrupted his computer gaming session.

31-year-old Anthony Michael Sanders was apparently a very serious computer gamer. “He’s very involved in computer gaming. … That’s something he did constantly,” Watuga Police Spokesman Sergeant Jason Babcock told Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Deanna Boyd. “She may have interrupted him somehow.”

The child’s mother had been out of the house on December 12, 2015, at an art show. The father was left at home to care for the little girl and her older brother.

After returning home from the art show, the little boy went in to the parent’s room where little Ellie Sanders was supposed to be sleeping and tried to wake her. Sgt. Babcock said the 5-year-old boy told the mother he couldn’t wake her and she said to let him sleep.

The father went into the room to wake her up and began to yell for the mother to 911 because she was not breathing.

An ambulance transported the little girl to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Police were notified because of severe bruising on the girls face and head along with adult bite marks on her ears and back.

Sanders initially told investigators he had no idea what had happened. “He just went back there and she wasn’t breathing,” Babcock stated. He reportedly told police he did not know how she received the injuries.

An autopsy revealed the cause of death as asphyxiation. Police allege that Sanders put his hand over her mouth while holding her down. No explanation for the bite marks was given.

Sanders was finally arrested on April 15 has been charged with capital murder. He is being held in the North Richland Jail. His bond was set on Friday at $1 million.

This was not the man’s first run-in with the law. In 2011 he allegedly choked the girl’s mother. A grand jury returned a no-bill and the case was dismissed.

Children’s Protective Service (CPS) has taken the brother into protective custody pending an investigation. CPS spokesman Marissa Gonzales said the family has no history with her agency.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and is a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.