Florida man drops 4-year-old child's head after drinking with boy’s mom

Wednesday, July 10, 2024 - A Florida man who spent the day drinking with a woman he met at a Daytona Beach pool is accused of dangling her 4-year-old son from a second-floor balcony before dropping the boy on his head.

Brandon Gilmore, 31, met the unidentified boy’s mom poolside at the Sandalwood Beach Resort on Saturday, July 6, then spent the day drinking with her before taking her son outside the room to “scare him a little bit,” WESH-TV News reported.

“He was just like swinging in, playing with them,” eyewitness Dasanni Bentley told the outlet. “And then he let him go, and he had him by one foot. And then the kids slipped right out of him and fell directly on his head on the concrete — no grass.”

Bentley said Gilmore and the boy’s mom — who only met five hours earlier at the hotel pool — dashed downstairs after the youngster hit the ground.

“His face started turning purple,” she said of the injured boy. “He obviously was getting no oxygen. It was not a good situation.”

The child was rushed to Halifax Health Medical Center, the Daytona Beach News-Journal said.

“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,” police told Fox News Digital on Tuesday, July 9.

Police said video surveillance footage captured Gilmore holding the boy in his arms before grabbing him by one leg and holding him over the balcony before he fell to the ground.

Gilmore is facing aggravated child abuse charges and was still being held without bail at the Volusia County Jail as of Tuesday morning.