A man is facing aggravated child abuse charges after throwing his two-month-old baby at a police officer at the end of a high-speed car chase.
For 40 minutes, John Henry James III sped through the streets of Vero Beach in Florida, at times smashing into the patrol car in pursuit, swerving around roadblocks, careering over tyre deflation devices, and crashing through hedgerows – forcing officers to eventually track him via helicopter.
After forcing other drivers off the road, James finally tore into an apartment block and officers blocked all entrances and exits with their cars.
Cornered, James jumped out and tried to run. As he did, he threw the infant at one of the officers.
He did it with “no regard” – it was “not a little toss,” officers can be heard saying in video of the incident posted to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.
Advertisement
Another added he “overhand threw this two-month-old at me from about six feet away”.
After tossing the baby, the 32-year-old suspect tried to get away and struggled with other deputies – kicking, biting and lashing out at them – before they eventually tackled him to the ground.
More on Florida
James pleaded with officers to let him go, but one told him: “All favours ended for you when you decided to drive crazy with a car with a kid in it.”
The police footage shows a deputy then walking away, cradling a baby in a sky blue outfit.
James was checked by medics and taken to a hospital after telling deputies he could not breathe and that he has asthma, Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
After being medically cleared by the hospital, James was charged with two counts of aggravated child abuse, aggravated battery of an officer/firefighter/medic, “fleeing and eluding”, reckless driving, and resisting arrest with violence.
James also faces a further charge of aggravated battery on a pregnant woman.
Students, charged and released with a date in court, are here now to collect their belongings. They’re missing bags, belts, shoes, all lost in the chaos of the night before.
More on California
Related Topics:
From the very heart of the protest encampment, our cameras had captured the chaos.
Officers moving in. Tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse. Stun grenades to disorientate.
Advertisement
They were scenes which have stirred an already fevered debate about Israel and Gaza, yes, but about much more too. About America, about policing, and about free speech too.
President Biden said yesterday: “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations – none of this is a peaceful protest.”
‘Wrong’ say the protesters. Their movement, they say, is the very essence of protest; of civil disobedience which is threaded through US college campus history.
They reject any notion that they are threatening or violent. Yet the deeply divisive history of the Israel-Palestine conflict ensures that the beholder will so often be offended by the actions of the other side.
It was the students perceived antisemitism through their pro-Palestinian slogans which had drawn a group of pro-Israel protesters to the encampment earlier in the week.
The chaos of that night was reflected in a statement by the university’s student radio station which has been covering every twist.
“Counter protestors used bear mace, professional-grade fireworks and clubs to brutalize hundreds of our peers, UCLA turned a blind eye. Police were not called until hours into the onslaught and stood aside for over an hour as counter-protestors enacted racial, physical and chemical violence,” the statement from the UCLA Radio Managerial team said.
Watching the clear-up after the nighttime police sweep of the protesters I spotted two people embracing. A young man and an older woman.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
3:17
Professor recalls violent arrest at protest
It turned out to be a thread of history. One was a student who’d been arrested the night before.
The other was a student from a past time. Diane Salinger had been at New York’s Columbia University in 1968, at protests which now form a key chapter in American history.
“I’m so proud of these people here. I’m so proud,” she told me.
“You know the civil unrest of the students back in ’68 and it continued for several years, it actually changed the course of the Vietnam War and hopefully this is going to do the same thing.”
But then, back at the police station, a conversation that hints at the wider challenges for America.
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
‘Tom’ is a protester who wanted to remain anonymous – a graduate who feels politically deserted in his own country. For him, no government is better than any on offer.
“The problem with our system is that we can’t rely on the police, we can’t rely on the military to keep us safe.
“When we need to make our voices heard, we need to make them heard, and the only way to do that without being repressed is by keeping each other safe and I think that last night and the last few months have really exemplified that,” he told me.
These protests are about more than Gaza. They are aligning a spectrum of dissent.
A scuba dive boat captain has been jailed for four years for criminal negligence over a fire that killed 34 people.
Captain Jerry Boylan was also sentenced to three years supervised release by a federal judge in Los Angeles, California.
The blaze on the vessel named Conception in September 2019 was the deadliest maritime disaster in recent American history.
Boylan was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer last year.
The charge is a pre-Civil War statute, known colloquially as seaman’s manslaughter, and was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters.
In a sentencing memo, lawyers for Boylan – who is appealing – wrote: “While the loss of life here is staggering, there can be no dispute that Mr Boylan did not intend for anyone to die.
“Indeed, Mr Boylan lives with significant grief, remorse, and trauma as a result of the deaths of his passengers and crew.”
The Conception was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, 25 miles south of Santa Barbara, when it caught fire before dawn on the final day of a three-day voyage, sinking less than 30 metres from the shore.
Thirty-three passengers and a crew member died, trapped below deck.
Ms Wilson bought her most recent ticket at Family Food Mart in the US town of Mansfield and the shop will receive a $10,000 (£7,900) bonus for its sale of the ticket, according to the Massachusetts State Lottery.
Advertisement
She bought her first $1m winning ticket at Dubs’s Discount Liquors in the same town.