Notorious nursing home attacker hit with multiple assault charges

In the space of less than a week, Jaden T. Hayden has gone from a troubled but unknown youth to arguably the most hated man in America.

That’s because 20-year old Hayden was supposedly so proud of the beating he allegedly dished out to a 75-year old man in a Detroit nursing home that he posted a video of the deed on social media.

Revulsion and condemnation of the heinous act was swift and it came from all sides, up to and including President Donald Trump.

Initially, some media believed Hayden to be a care worker at the Westwood Nursing Center where the alleged assault took place. But, remarkably, it later emerged that the young man was a resident at the nursing home who was sharing a room with the elderly man he attacked.

The victim has since been named as Norman Bledsoe, an army veteran, who had himself only recently been transferred to the facility. Hayden is also alleged to have stolen credit cards from Bledsoe as well as administering the beating and posting it to social media.

Now, Wayne County Prosecutors have hit Hayden with multiple felony charges, including two counts of assault with intent to do great bodily harm, larceny in a building and two counts of financial transaction device stealing/retaining without consent.

Hayden is expected to be arraigned Sunday in the 34th District Court in Romulus.

“The alleged actions of this defendant are truly and uniquely disturbing. We must be able to trust our loved ones in specialty care facilities. I truly hope that the facts of this case are one of a kind,” Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a news release.

Hayden’s father, who asked not to be named, said his son has mental health issues and a pending assault case and should never have been placed in the nursing home.

“He has issues and for them to put him in a facility like that, nothing good was going to happen,” the suspect’s father told 7 Action News.

He said his son was recently moved to the nursing center because he was diagnosed with COVID-19 at the University of Michigan Hospital.

Hayden’s father said that he had been working with local mental health services to get his son the help he needs and that he was placed in a group home in Chelsea. But, recently, he said his son began hearing voices and that’s when he was taken to the hospital and it was there he says that his son was diagnosed with COVID-19.

“He never should have been housed… quarantined with the victim that he eventually assaulted. That should have never happened,” he said. “Someone dropped the ball.”