Darrion Scott charged with assault, endangerment of 2-year-old

MINNEAPOLIS -- Former Vikings defensive end and current NFL free agent Darrion Scott has been charged with assault and child endangerment today in Minneapolis. According to the charges, Scott placed a plastic dry cleaning bag over a child’s head.

Scott was arrested April 30 in Eden Prairie and booked into the Hennepin County Jail for assault and malicious punishment of a child. According to the criminal complaint, child protection officials called Eden Prairie police on April 29 to notify them of a reported case of child abuse on April 28.

MOTHER: SCOTT HELD DRY CLEANING BAG OVER BOY'S HEAD

A woman reported Scott held a plastic dry cleaning bag over her 2-year-old son’s head. She told child protection Scott was the boy’s father, who recently became involved in the boy’s life in January 2008.

The woman told police Scott asked the boy to spend the night at his Eden Prairie home on April 25. When she went to pick up her son the next day, she walked through the unlocked door and heard crying.

When she entered the home, she found Scott leaning over the boy, who was on his back crying and kicking his legs. The boy had a dry cleaning bag over his head and Scott was holding it tight around the boy’s neck. Scott told the woman they were playing and he wanted to see if the boy could get the bag off by himself.

OTHER INJURIES

The woman told police she noticed other injuries on her son after his visit to Scott’s home. When she asked him, Darrion Scott told her the boy might have fallen in the utility room.

Toward the end of March or beginning of April, Scott brought the boy home and asked if he could bathe him, according to the criminal complaint. The next day, the boy’s mother noticed what appeared to be burn marks of his arm and ear. Scott told her he didn’t know how the boy was injured.

A doctor, and child abuse expert, examined the marks and determined they were intentionally inflicted. She said the marks were consistent with burns or an impact injury.

In February, the boy came home with three lumps on his forehead. Scott told the mother they were doing a “victory dance” to celebrate the boy’s use of the toilet, and he threw the boy in the air, causing him to fall and hit his head on the frame of a sofa.

GUN IN THE HOUSE

A search of Darrion Scott’s home revealed a fully-loaded .50 caliber handgun, unsecured, in a nightstand in Scott’s bedroom. Police say neither the nightstand nor the bedroom were locked and the drawer was “easily accessible to a two-year-old child.”

THE CHARGES

Darrion Scott is in police custody, charged with third-degree assault, domestic assault by strangulation and endangerment of a child.

OTHER LEGAL TROUBLES

Not counting Scott’s recent arrest for domestic assault, officers have been called to his home 9 times over the past three years. READ MORE ABOUT THOSE CALLS

Last December, Scott was cited for misdemeanor marijuana possession and failure to signal as he pulled over in Charleston, W. Va. READ MORE

DARRION SCOTT'S VIKINGS TENURE

Darrion Scott played four seasons with the Vikings, appearing in only four games in 2007 due to injury. He has visited the Washington Redskins and New England Patriots this spring.