A Florida dad faces multiple charges after allegedly tossing his 5-year-old son into the ocean late Monday in a drunken attempt to teach him how to swim.
John Bloodsworth, 37, from Daytona Beach, Florida, faces charges for child abuse and disorderly intoxication in public, after witnesses saw him illegally jumping off the Daytona Beach pier. He threw his son into the Atlantic Ocean and then continued to backflip off the pier. The child struggled to stay afloat in the deep waters below, WCTV reported.
“I said I can’t take this no more, so I went down to the pier, down on the sand, and confronted him myself,” Former Georgia State Trooper, Mitch Brown told WESH 2 News, “I said you’re coming with me, one way or the other.”
Brown saw the child struggling alone in the water while eating dinner with his family at the pier. Brown said that others were watching as Bloodsworth would tumble from the pier, swim past his child, and then throw him into the waves while yelling at him to learn how to swim, WESH 2 News reporter Chris Guardaro said.
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“Mitch brought him to a Daytona Beach police officer who later arrested him,” Guardaro said.
No lifeguards were on duty at the time, but swimming is strictly prohibited in the area near the pier because of a moderate risk of rip currents, local Daytona Beach officials told the Daytona Beach News Journal.
Bloodsworth consumed four to five beers before bringing his son to the beach. The child was turned over to his mother, and Bloodsworth was released from jail with no lawyer listed on jail records, Police reports say according to Associated Press.
Bloodsworth has also issued a trespass notice, prohibiting his return to the Daytona Beach pier and the surrounding area, the Daytona Beach News Journal reported.
Bloodsworth reportedly told investigators at the Valusia County beach safety headquarters that he was going to jail “for being awesome” and that he would come back to the pier everyday to jump off, Guardaro reports.
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