A 22-year-old Tennessee man faces child abuse charges after he reportedly beat his girlfriend’s toddler son with a braided dog toy.

The Memphis Police Department said emergency responders were sent to the home in the Oakville neighborhood for a 2-year-old boy who wasn’t breathing, was bleeding from the mouth, and had bruises on his body, according to WMC.

The boy, identified by family members as Anthony Bakare, was rushed to a hospital but did not survive.

The child’s mother told police that she went to bed at about 11:15 p.m. and that her boyfriend, Anthony Andrews, took over watching him. She said that she had seen Andrews discipline her son before with a belt or the dog toy. She also said she had recently noticed “excess bruising and wounds” on the boy, but Andrews told her he had “fallen out of bed.”

Andrews told investigators he hit the boy “seven to eight times” Monday morning on the back, face, and buttocks, using the dog toy, and admitted that he hit him “harder than [he] should with a belt a few weeks earlier. He also said he slapped the boy “at least once or twice” and shoved him into a corner before putting him back in bed.

Several minutes later, Andrews said, the boy fell out of bed, unresponsive.

Andrews’ sister, Britnee Andrews, told WMC that the boy’s death couldn’t possibly have anything to do with her brother beating him with a dog toy or anything else.

“He loved that little baby,” she said. “That’s not his biological son, but he would never hurt that baby.”

Britnee Andrews showed the station a photo of the toddler with a black eye and a split lip that her brother said he got from falling off a trampoline.

“My brother loves kids,” she said, adding that he “whooped” the kids but never excessively. “He is so good with my kids, and I know he couldn’t hurt anyone.”

Andrews had been charged with aggravated child abuse and aggravated child neglect and is being held on a $250,000 bond.

His sister, meanwhile, says she won’t believe her brother “beat that boy to death” until she sees the autopsy report for herself. Officials are also awaiting the autopsy report, which could lead to more severe charges.

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[Featured image: Anthony Andrews/Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and Anthony Bakare/handout]