A man accused of killing his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son this week in Forsyth County is now charged with murder.
Authorities had initially charged Christopher E. Truett, 25, of Butts County, with cruelty to children and reckless conduct. A news release from the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office said Truett found the boy, Wyatt Pruitt, unresponsive Tuesday.
Channel 2 Action News reported Friday that the charges against him had been upgraded to felony murder, malice murder and aggravated assault.
Truett called 911 when the boy’s mother walked in the house, Doug Rainwater, sheriff’s department spokesman, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Dawn Schutts, the boy’s mother, “snatched the phone from him and started talking to the 911 operator,” he said. “The operator began walking her through CPR.”
Deputies were called to the home in the Bridgetowne subdivision about 11 a.m. Authorities took the boy to Northside Hospital-Forsyth, where he was pronounced dead about 11:45 a.m., Rainwater said in the release.
Just before 1:45 p.m., after using dogs to track him into the woods behind the neighborhood, deputies took Truett into custody near Ga. 369 and Ga. 400.
Part of the continuing investigation will focus on how long the child might have needed help before his mother got home, Rainwater said.
The boy was one of two toddlers who died in metro Atlanta this week. Meriel Bemis, 21, faces one count of felony murder in connection with the Sunday night death of her 3-year-old daughter in DeKalb County.
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