The 31-year-old man – who had only met his mother a few hours earlier – was charged with aggravated child abuse after telling her he needed to “scare him a little bit”, while a witness said the boy “immediately fell head first onto the concrete, no grass”.
A Florida man has been accused of dropping a 4-year-old boy from a hotel balcony in Daytona Seashore.
On Saturday, Brandon Gilmore, 31, allegedly dangled the boy by one leg from the second-floor balcony of the Sandals Inn before throwing him headfirst onto the concrete, according to the local NBC affiliate. WESHciting information from the Daytona Seashore Police Division, which obtained surveillance footage.
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According to police, Gilmore told authorities that he had met the 4-year-old boy and his mother about 5 hours before the incident. He claimed he informed the mother that he was taking her son out of his room to play and “scare him a little bit.”
“(Gilmore) then exited the dorm room and began carrying (the boy) by each of his legs, immediately holding him over the second-floor balcony,” police wrote in the report, according to the Daytona Seashore Information-Journal.
Authorities also said, according to the outlet, that a friend of the girl and baby, who was staying in the same room, told police that Gilmore found the boy and his mother at the hotel pool, where they were drinking, before the girl invited Gilmore to her room.
Police said witnesses reported seeing the incident occur, claiming they saw Gilmore dangle the 4-year-old boy by his feet over the balcony before dropping him two stories down.
Authorities also wrote in the affidavit that the Department of Children and Families reported the incident.
Dasanni Bentley, a witness, spoke to WESH and described the incident as “completely devastating.”
“He was just swinging, playing with them. Then he let go and held him by one foot,” she recalled. “Then the child slid out of it and immediately fell headfirst onto the concrete, grassless ground.”
“His face started turning vibrant purple,” Bentley added. “He clearly wasn’t getting oxygen. It just wasn’t the state of things.”
She stated that she noticed the boy’s mother running downstairs.
“They were all just standing around him, trying to make sure he was OK,” Bentley said. “People were screaming from the pool, they didn’t want to touch him.”
According to Daytona Seashore Police Sergeant Tim Ehrenkaufer, as per the Information-Journal, the boy was rushed to Halifax Well being Medical Heart as a trauma alert. The outlet stated that the boy was discharged from the hospital on Monday and is not expected to have any long-term medical issues from the fall.
Gilmore, meanwhile, has been charged with aggravated child abuse and is being held in the Volusia County Jail without bail, according to information about the arrest. He was still behind bars as of Monday, according to the Information-Journal.
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