Drunk father arrested for throwing five-year-old son off a pier to 'teach him to swim' says he was 'being awesome'
A Florida father who got drunk and threw his five-year-old son into the ocean to "teach him to swim" has now been arrested.
A Daytona Beach police officer got a tip Monday night about an intoxicated man at the local pier.
At the time, a former Georgia State Trooper was vacationing with his family when he saw 37-year-old John Bloodsworth throw his son into the ocean, forcing him to swim, and then leaving him unattended as he proceeded to jump off the pier into the water, according to local TV-station WESH.
“I said, ‘I can’t take this no more.’ So I went down to the pier, down to the shore and confronted him myself,” Mitch Brown told the outlet. “The little kid was out here by himself. Completely by himself. There was nobody around him, no adults.”
Brown later approached Bloodsworth and brought him to a nearby Daytona police officer.
According to a police report obtained by the Daytona Beach News-Journal and Fox13, Bloodsworth's son, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was comforted by several people as his father told the officer he was only trying to "teach him to swim."
The boy struggled to swim in the water, which was about four feet deep, witnesses told the officer.
When he tried to swim back onshore, Bloodsworth yelled at him to "go back."
What's more? Bloodsworth allegedly did backflips off the pier while his son struggled to be on the water surface.
The father revealed to the officer he drank five beers before entering the beach.
Bloodsworth allegedly didn't show concern for his son as he was being arrested, and instead said he was “going to jail for being awesome,” per the police report.
Bloodsworth is now facing charges of aggravated abuse of a child, disorderly intoxication and swimming within 300 feet of the pier.
Aside from the aforementioned counts, Bloodsworth was also handed a trespass notice banning him from the pier.
The notice reportedly came after Bloodsworth told officers he wanted to jump off the pier every day, only that he would get his daughter the next time around.
That said, the youngster is now with his mother.
While it is unclear if Bloodsworth has been assigned an attorney, he was reportedly released from Volusia County Branch Jail on Tuesday after posting $1,500 bail, People reports.