Father from Florida was arrested after he allegedly threw his 5-year-old son in the rough ocean to teach him how to swim. According to police reports, J. Bloodsworth was doing backflips at the time and it was intoxicated when the police arrived.
Police officer got a tip about an intoxicated man at the local pier by a former Georgia state trooper who was on vacation with his family. He and his family watched the man allegedly throw his son into the ocean, yell at him to swim and then proceed to leave him unattended while he jumped off the pier into the water.
“I said, ‘I can’t take this no more.’ So, I went down to the pier, down to the shore and confronted him myself,” he said. “The little kid was out here by himself. Completely by himself. There was nobody around him, no adults.” Then an officer came on the scene.
As Bloodsworth’s son was comforted by several people nearby, 37-year-old Bloodsworth told the officer he was trying to “teach him to swim,” according to a police report.
Witnesses told the officer the boy struggled to swim in the water, which was about four feet deep, and when he tried to swim towards his father on shore, Bloodsworth yelled at him to “go back.”
Bloodsworth also allegedly did back flips off the pier while his son struggled down below.
He allegedly told the officer he had consumed five beers before going to the beach. As he was arrested, Bloodsworth didn’t show concern for his son, instead allegedly saying he was “going to jail for being awesome,” the report states.
Bloodsworth faces charges of aggravated abuse of a child, disorderly intoxication and swimming within 300 feet of the pier.
Luckily, the boy is now with his mother who was granted custody over her son.
