A Tarrant County inmate has been charged with murder after allegedly punching a pregnant hospital staffer, killing the unborn child.
The attack occurred on April 12 at John Peter Smith Hospital, a county-funded hospital near downtown Fort Worth.
Cheri Akil, 39, was arrested on April 10 in connection with a credit or debit card abuse investigation and released on bond. Two days later, Akil was arrested again for allegedly driving while intoxicated and intentionally or knowingly operating an illicit game room.
While in the custody of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, she was transported to the hospital for treatment because she was considered potentially suicidal.
Authorities said Akil was being attended to and restrained by hospital workers when she reportedly punched the pregnant staffer in the stomach.
The staffer was quickly sent to JPS Hospital’s Trauma Unit for treatment. The unit performed an ultrasound and determined that the unborn child had lost its pulse.
Akil was charged with murder in connection with the attack, and she also faces charges of possession of methamphetamines stemming from an indictment in 2018 in Taylor County.
Murdering a child under 10 years of age is a capital crime in Texas. The legal definition includes unborn children at every stage of pregnancy, from fertilization until birth.
Many healthcare workers have faced violence throughout DFW and nationwide in the past year. Hospital workers are six times more likely to experience a serious injury due to workplace violence than workers in any other private sector industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Two hospital workers were gunned down by a parolee at Dallas Methodist Hospital last October, as reported by The Dallas Express.
Murder continues to plague Dallas in 2023. According to the Dallas crime analytics dashboard, reported cases of murder and non-negligent manslaughter have skyrocketed by 23.3% year over year.
So far, there have been 90 reports of murder in 2023, compared to 73 murders during the same time period last year.
Drug and narcotic violations have also jumped in Dallas, increasing by 5.2% year over year.
