A sick father has been arrested on suspicion of leaving his 8-month-old son in the middle of a Florida intersection, then running him over and killing him with an SUV, authorities said.
Justin Golden, 20, is accused of killing a male child during an altercation with a female passenger in Jacksonville around 11 a.m. Saturday, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
“The driver stopped at the intersection, opened the door and placed the child on the ground,” the sheriff's office said.
“The driver then began to leave the scene and the vehicle struck the child.”
It was not immediately clear whether the female passenger was the boy's mother.
But horrified witnesses recalled seeing a distraught woman clutching a baby in the middle of the road in the aftermath.
“The child was bleeding,” said Markin Burns, who runs a barber shop across the street. told News4Jax. “So we immediately asked her if she needed help.”
“Now that we know the details, things are getting worse,” he added in a separate interview. first coast news. “Just hearing the screams and people comforting her told me it was really tragic.”
“Especially if the child is young,” Burns continued. “That hits home. Anything that involves children we take very seriously.”
Golden, who reportedly fled the scene and was pursued by witnesses, was quickly arrested and charged with felony manslaughter and vehicular homicide for the horrific ordeal, authorities said.
He is currently being held in the Duval County Jail.
The sheriff's office said it is still investigating the tragedy.
