Penn Live reports that a twenty year-old New Jersey man has been arrested after allegedly causing the death of his girlfriend’s eighteen month-old son “by way of the Undertaker’s Last Ride finisher”. Scott Hoffman was arrested after he rushed the child to the hospital, where the child was diagnoses with a collapsed lung and possible broken neck. The child died at the hospital.
Hoffman told authorities that he meant to end the move on the bed, but missed and the child hit the floor. He had said that the boy would not go to sleep after his mother left for work, so he took the child out from his crib and began doing wrestling moves as he had been for weeks. He said he had also given the boy a “Rock Bottom”.
Hoffman was charged with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated and simple assault, endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person. WWE issued a statement on the death, which read:
Hoffman told investigators Bryson would not go to sleep late Tuesday afternoon after his mother left for work so he took the child from a crib and began wrestling moves with boy, as he had been doing for several weeks.
“There is no excuse for a 20-year-old grown man to assault an 18-month old child, no matter what. Using a flimsy excuse about emulating a wrestling maneuver does not absolve Brandon Hoffman of this abhorrent crime. The death of Bryson Shoemaker is a tragedy, and WWE offers its condolences to the child’s mother, Sierra Shoemaker.”
