Husband of Baton Rouge city executive killed couple's child in NOLA

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NEW ORLEANS – The 18-month old child of a Baton Rouge city government employee was killed by the other parent, media outlets in New Orleans reported Tuesday morning.

Police said a 45-year-old man confessed to stabbing and suffocating his child overnight after a message from God. The killing happened in the Bywater area of New Orleans – an area between the city's Lower 9th Ward and the French Quarter. The man was identified as Mark Hambrick.

The New Orleans Advocate reported property records show the home is owned by his wife, Monika Gerhart-Hambrick, who is the East Baton Rouge Urban Development Director.

Police said Mark Hambrick was alone with the child as the mother worked “out of town,” according to the newspaper.

"It's a gruesome scene. It's tragic," New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison told WWL TV, a news partner with WBRZ in New Orleans. "A mother has lost a baby and has now lost a husband,” he said.

"This is extremely tragic," Harrison said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with this mother and the rest of the family."

Mark Hambrick is in custody.

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The man suspected of stabbing and choking his daughter to death at their Bywater home Tuesday morning had worked for New Orleans' Sewerage & Water Board for a little more than a year, municipal employment records show.

Mark Selassie Hambrick, 45, finished a six-month probationary period in February, according to New Orleans civil service records. He held the position of the management development analyst at the agency when he was arrested on allegations that he knifed and strangled his 18-month-old girl, whom neighbors identified as Amelia.

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