A 21-year-old New Haven man was charged with assault after allegedly punching his pregnant girlfriend in the face and then kicking her in the stomach.
Shaunsaa Henderson has eight criminal charges stemming from the incident, including two felonies. He’s scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Derby July 14.
The woman suffered internal bleeding around the sac of her uterus, according to court documents. Immediately after the June 16 assault, a physician’s assistant at Griffin Hospital told police the woman may have a miscarriage due to the incident.
The victim was scheduled to see her doctor again June 22. Derby police would not comment on whether the woman miscarried.
According to an arrest warrant, Derby police were sent to an apartment house on Anson Street shortly after 10 p.m. June 16.
A message seeking comment was left Tuesday afternoon with Henderson’s attorney.
The woman — two months pregnant with Henderson’s baby — said she was visiting her friend after arguing with Henderson earlier in the day.
Henderson appeared in the hallway of the building to give the woman her purse back. The two resumed their argument.
According to Derby police, the victim told police that:
“I went out into the hallway to talk to him. He then punched me in the face. I fell to the ground. He then kicked me hard in my stomach. I was scared not only for myself, but I’m (two) months pregnant.”
Police said they could see the impression of a sneaker or shoe within an abrasion on the woman’s right arm. She also had an abrasion on her stomach, a cut under her lip and a contusion to the back of her head.
Henderson was arrested five days after the assault, after police obtained a warrant for his arrest. He was taken into custody after police spotted him walking on Hawkins Street in Derby.
He allegedly told police that the woman hit him, causing him to grab her arms and push her away. He denied kicking her, allegedly telling police that the woman must have been in a fight with someone else after he left the building.
After police put Henderson in a holding cell, he allegedly threw toilet water at a Derby police officer. He refused to be fingerprinted, Derby police said, and tried to fake a medical condition while in custody. An ambulance crew checked out Henderson after he went limp and began to groan. They determined he was fine, according to a police incident report.
When the medics told police he didn’t need to be taken to the hospital, Henderson allegedly jumped to his feet and said “You want to (expletive deleted) with me, well I can (expletive deleted) with you.”
Henderson is charged with assaulting a pregnant person, first-degree reckless endangerment, breach of peace, assaulting a police officer, two counts of refusing to be fingerprinted, interfering with police and criminal mischief.
He is being held in jail in Bridgeport on bonds totaling $62,500.
In May 2010, Henderson was stabbed at a residence on Hawkins Street by Derby resident Stephan Coney. Henderson’s intestines were punctured in the assault and he had to have emergency surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Coney was later sentenced to six years in prison.
In the video below, Henderson talks to WTNH about the stabbing.
