GIFFORD, Fla. (NewsNation Now) — Police in a coastal Florida county say a man threw an infant at them after a long chase through the community.
It began May 26 in the community of Gifford when officers said they tried to pull John Henry James III, 32, over for swerving, but police say he took off instead.
“James struck the front end of a detective’s vehicle,” a post on the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page Friday said. “He also dodged roadblocks and at least one attempted stop-stick deployment. He ran over another set of stop-sticks, but they failed to disable the vehicle.”
Eventually, officers trapped him in an apartment complex. When he got out, he was holding a 2-month-old baby. The post says he threw the child at officers as they tried to arrest him. An officer caught the baby and took it away from the fracas.
The child was not hurt.
The post said James is facing several felonies, including child endangerment, reckless driving, and battering a first responder. They say the entire pursuit lasted 40 minutes.
The sheriff’s office posted video of the pursuit on Facebook, but the arrest is tough to make out from the helicopter angle they provide.
James was taken to a hospital because he complained of shortness of breath and is asthmatic, but he was taken to the county jail on June 1.