Many of us remember the infamous moment pop star Michael Jackson dangerously leaned over a hotel balcony with his son in his arms. The child, whose face was covered by a blanket, kicked at the open air under his feet. The moment was odd and nerve-racking to watch. But when questioned about it, MJ assured everyone that he would have never dropped his child.
That might not have been his intention, but it certainly could have happened, just as it did to a young boy in Florida recently.
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Brandon Gilmore reportedly dropped a toddler off a balcony just hours after meeting the child's mother.
The child fell two stories after a man dangled him from a hotel balcony at the Sandals Inn and then dropped him, according to Fox News. The child, who fell head first, sustained blunt force trauma.
The man holding him, 31-year-old Brandon Gilmore, was charged with aggravated child abuse, according to the Daytona Beach Police Department. Gilmore and the child’s mother met just five hours before she invited him back to her hotel room, the Miami Herald reported. The two talked about getting piercings together, according to the arrest affidavit.
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Gilmore said he was trying to 'scare' the boy a little bit.
Gilmore told police that he asked the mother's permission to take the boy out onto the balcony to play with him and “scare him a little bit.” His mother, who had allegedly been drinking all day with Gilmore, agreed. That’s when he reportedly held the boy by his legs and dropped him. Witnesses say they heard the child screaming before he fell. Dasanni Bentley told WESH-TV that Gilmore was swinging the boy before he started holding him by one foot.
“And then he let him go, and he had him by one foot. And then the kid slipped right out of his hand and fell directly on his head on the concrete — no grass,” Bentley said.
'It was not a good situation,' one witness said.
Video surveillance of the incident appears to confirm both Gilmore’s account and those of witnesses. While police said the boy was under 5 years old, WESH-TV reported he was 4. Bentley said after the boy hit the ground, his mother and Gilmore ran downstairs.
“His face started turning purple,” she said of the injured boy. “He obviously was getting no oxygen. It was not a good situation.”
The boy has since been released from the hospital.
Thankfully, the child didn’t sustain any long-term injuries. In a statement to Fox News, the Daytona Police Department wrote that "The child is doing fine and has been discharged from the hospital and is not expected to have any long-term health issues as a result of this tragic event."
Gilmore remains in police custody without bond at the Volusia County Jail, Fox reports.
If you suspect child abuse, you can call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 (1-800-4-A-Child), or go to Childhelp.org. The hotline is available 24/7.
