Authorities say they have caught a man in South Carolina who they say kidnapped his son and led police on a chase that ended in a fiery crash.
Police arrested a 31-year-old man across the Georgia state line on May 8 after they said he attacked the mother of his child in Belton, South Carolina. This was reported by the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies say the man took their 3-year-old son and held him hostage after leaving. GA State Patrol says that he “threatened to kill the child” who was sitting in the front seat of his Ford pickup truck at one point.
The suspect’s name is being kept secret by McClatchy News to protect the victims’ privacy.
Police chased the man onto Interstate 85, and they kept going as he crossed into Georgia, according to police. As the police got closer, they said they saw that the truck’s cabin was full of smoke.
Georgia cops say the man started a fire and then jumped out of the moving truck’s driver’s side window, leaving his son behind. The truck was going about 55 miles per hour.
The car hit a cliff and quickly caught fire, according to the authorities. After the fire was put out, deputies found the boy on the driver’s side floorboard with “severe burns.”
Troopers said he was flown to a burn center and is in very bad shape. The man was also taken to the hospital after the accident.
The 31-year-old man was recently arrested on a charge of domestic abuse, and the sheriff’s office says the mother of his child was given a protective order against him.
The Anderson County Sheriff’s Office wrote on Facebook, “Our hearts are with the child’s mother as she faces this out-of-this-world situation.” “We ask everyone to keep praying for the 3-year-old boy as he fights in the trauma center.”
Police say the man is being charged with several things that will be made public at a later time.
It takes about 120 miles to drive northwest from Columbia to get to Anderson County.
