A father hurled his his five-year-old son off a pier into the ocean in a terrifying attempt at teaching him how to swim, police say.
John Bloodsworth, 37, was arrested Tuesday after witnesses say he threw his son into the Atlantic Ocean from the pier in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Bloodsworth was reportedly seen illegally jumping off the pier multiple times before forcing his son into the waves while yelling at him to learn to swim.
Mitch Brown, a former Georgia State Trooper, was on vacation with his family when he saw Bloodsworth’s son struggling to keep his head above the water.
Brown told WESH: ‘The little kid was out here by himself. Completely by himself. There was nobody around him, no adults.’
He said he decided he had to intervene and confronted Bloodsworth.
‘I said, “you’re coming with me, one way or another,”‘ Brown said.
He brought Bloodsworth to a Daytona Beach police officer who arrested the father, noticing that he was allegedly drunk.
‘The kid was already very visibly upset and crying, and he didn’t want to be there,’ Brown said.
Bloodsworth was charged with child abuse and disorderly intoxication in public, but he showed no remorse while he was being booked at the Volusia County Beach Safety Headquarters.
Authorities said Bloodsworth told them he was ‘going to jail for being awesome’ and he would be ‘coming back to the pier to jump off every day.’
The father was released from jail Tuesday after posting an unspecified bond.
His son, who was reportedly unharmed, was released to his mother, according to an arrest report.
Source: Read Full Article