A Washington state man was charged with attempting to murder his 2-year-old daughter following a rampage he reportedly claimed was his attempt to follow God's orders, WBIR-TV reported.
Police in Vancouver, Washington said the suspect, 32-year-old Kyle Stephen Holder told them, "I had to hold my daughter and crush her head so she could go up to the sky."
The suspect attacked the girl at a local motel on Tuesday night, allegedly throwing her out a window, then throwing her to the ground and stomping on her head. He was stopped by a witness, Don Gilbert, who hit him in the head multiple times with a baseball bat.
"He was just babbling about how God is coming for everyone and he has to get the evil out of the daughter. He kept coming every time I moved between him and the baby," Gilbert said. "He'd charge me and I'd swing the bat."
The Oregonian reported that the suspect's bail was set at $1 million. He was seen wearing a suicide-prevention vest during his arraignment. The girl was hospitalized and is currently listed in critical condition.
"I know for a fact that she's going to make it," said her mother, Barbara Keller, who is also married to the suspect. "She's my baby, and she's going to be strong enough to make it. If I have to give my last breath and my blood, I will."
Keller said that she and Holder were in the area visiting her mother and working to pay for their return to Georgia. According to her, the suspect had never been violent toward the child, and was outside the motel room they shared when she went to bed on the night of the attack.
"The person I saw [Tuesday night] was not him," Keller said. "Someone must have given him drugs."
Watch WBIR's report below.