Man arrested after slamming 5-year-old son into wall, barricading himself inside Miami-Dade home, sheriff's office says
A man was arrested after he reportedly battered his children and slammed his five-year-old son into a wall before barricading himself inside a Miami-Dade home on Saturday, the sheriff's office said.
Brice Martinez, 33, was charged with one count of child abuse with aggravated harm and two additional counts of child abuse with no great bodily harm after he was seen battering his three sons on Wednesday afternoon.
Just after 2 p.m., the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office said its Midwest District deputies responded to an apartment located near 2055 SW 122 Ave. in Tamiami, where a man "slammed his 5-year-old son against the wall and the child suffered a laceration."
Upon arrival, deputies saw the father — later identified Martinez — had battered his three children, MDSO public information officer Samantha Choon told reporters early Saturday evening.
According to arrest documents obtained by CBS News Miami, Martinez was taking care of his children when he "became upset" with the five-year-old boy.
"He picked him up and slammed his head into the wall three times, causing large laceration, which required five staples," the arrest documents said.
The boy also suffered a frontal hematoma from his injuries.
Meanwhile, the two-year-old was "thrown to the concrete floor by [Martinez]," hitting his back and causing pain. Martinez then allegedly became "irate" with his eight-year-old for trying to render aid to his brothers and punched him in the right side of his face, causing a contusion, the arrest documents said.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue took the boy to Kendall Regional Hospital for treatment while the other two children were treated on the scene and returned to their mother.
According to the arrest documents, a witness told the authorities they had seen Martinez throw his two-year-old son onto the concrete floor and render aid to the five-year-old to prevent further bleeding.
Martinez then barricaded himself inside the apartment building, prompting MDSO's Special Response Team to respond.
CBS News Miami had a crew on the scene, where MDSO was seen moving into a first-floor apartment where Martinez had barricaded himself and knocked down walls and windows while trying to convince him to surrender.
"[MDSO] tried to talk to him," Choon said. "They tried to convince him to come out of the property to surrender himself. Sometimes, that doesn't happen. They did have to break a couple windows, [and] they were able to get him to surrender."
Martinez was then taken into custody, arrested and booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on the aforementioned charges.
MDSO's Special Victims Unit is currently investigating the circumstances that led the man to hurt his children and barricade himself.
