Mom ran over boyfriend as he held their baby, Florida cops say. Child critically hurt

A 16-month-old boy suffered multiple broken bones and a collapsed lung when he was intentionally run over by his mom, according to investigators in Florida.

The instance of felony child abuse occurred Monday, June 24, as the boy was being held by his father, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. The father was also hit and suffered “bruising to his body and lungs,” officials said.

Investigators say the couple were arguing at their Lake Wales home when the dispute spread to the yard and turned dangerous.

“As the argument escalated ... she placed two other small children (4 years old, and 6 months old) into her car, and got into the driver’s seat,” the sheriff’s office reports.

“The man picked up the infant and began to run away as (she) accelerated directly at the two victims, and ran over them before she crashed the vehicle into a trailer.”

Video released by the sheriff’s office shows the man picked up the boy as he sat directly in front of the car, and the vehicle pursued them as they ran through a yard.

Detectives say the 25-year-old father went to a hospital and the mother placed the injured boy back in the home “by himself” and drove away, officials said.

After learning the boy was left alone, the father returned to the home, picked up the boy and took him to a hospital, officials said.

The boy was listed in critical condition June 25, with a “broken left shoulder and collar bone, multiple broken ribs, a partially collapsed lung, and abrasions and bruising on his body,” officials said.

The mother was arrested at her sister’s home in Orlando, and she told investigators the injuries were the fault of her boyfriend.

“(She) told a detective that there have been several times in the past that she has acted as if she was going to run over the man, but she would swerve at the last second to avoid hitting him,” the sheriff’s office reported.

“She said she assumed that because of that, he would have moved out of the way in this instance, but he did not.”

The other two children that witnessed the incident were located and are now in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families, officials said.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd released a statement saying the failure to take the baby to a hospital and leaving him alone were part of a “series of incredibly unthinkable choices” made by the 27-year-old suspect.

She is being charged with felony counts of aggravated child abuse, aggravated battery-domestic and negligent child abuse, and misdemeanor counts of battery-domestic and leaving the scene of a crash with property damage, officials said.

Lake Wales is about a 60-mile drive east of Tampa.

This story was originally published June 25, 2024 at 2:13 PM with the headline "Mom ran over boyfriend as he held their baby, Florida cops say. Child critically hurt."