Man charged with murder for allegedly abusing six-year-old son who died after being forced to run on treadmill

Prosecutors say Christopher Gregor made six-year-old exercise to lose weight

(Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office)

A New Jersey man faces murder charges for the abuse of his six-year-old son that allegedly included forcing him to run on a treadmill.

Prosecutors say that Christopher Gregor weighed his son regularly and made him exercise to lose weight, and court documents state that the boy told his mother that his father “made him run on the treadmill because he is fat.”

The 29-year-old has also been charged with endangering the welfare of a child, according to authorities in Ocean County, New Jersey.

Surveillance footage from the suspect’s apartment complex in Atlantic Heights, showed them enter the gym where the boy cold be seen running the treadmill and falling off six times, according to a probable cause affidavit.

He was arrested after taking his son to hospital in April 2021 suffering from shortness of breath and nausea.

The youngster, whose name is being withheld by authorities, then started having seizures and was pronounced dead the same day.

The Ocean County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted a post-mortem investigation and found several bruises and hemorrhaging of the liver.

Prosecutors asked Dr Thomas Andrew of White Mountain Forensic to review the findings, according to the affidavit.

His report says he found the cause of the boy’s death to be “blunt impact injuries of the chest and abdomen with laceration of the heart,” among other injuries. It was concluded that the manner of death was homicide.

The report also concluded that the child had suffered chronic abuse and the injuries were consistent with abuse over period of time.

The suspect is being held without bail, and his lawyer, Mario Gallucci, has stated that his client “had nothing to do with the death of this child.”

The boy’s mother had taken him to a doctor the day before his death because of bruising, and had reported the suspect for alleged abuse on multiple occasions to the New Jersey’s Department of Child Protection and Permanency, according to the affidavit.