Four months after a baby boy was saved from an overdose, his father was arrested and charged with one count of child neglect.
Nathaniel Shawn Ford, 44, of Jacksonville was arrested on a warrant for child neglect during a traffic stop this past weekend.
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According to the arrest report, Ford was pulled over early Sunday morning for driving a dirt bike that was not street-legal. When the officer ran Ford’s name, it came back having a warrant for child neglect.
The child neglect charge stems from a June 5 incident inside a Spring Park neighborhood apartment complex. According to police, Ford’s 7-month-old baby boy was unresponsive after suffering a drug overdose. (To watch JSO’s video of the incident, click here.)
Although the arrest report is heavily redacted, Ford told police that after he realized the child was unresponsive, he tried to wash the boy’s mouth in the kitchen sink. After that effort did not revive the boy, Ford said he took the baby to the bathroom and ran water over the child while patting the boy’s back to revive him.
A female neighbor who was CPR-certified attempted to revive the boy until paramedics could arrive. That neighbor told police that Ford told her that he believed his son got sick after picking up a cigarette and putting it in his mouth.
JSO officers arrived on the scene before the paramedics. In Officer Langston’s bodycam video, Ford is both seen and heard telling the officer that he saw his son eating a cigarette.
News4JAX Crime and Safety Analyst Tom Hackney said the officer‘s training helped her determine the baby’s unresponsiveness had nothing to do with what the father said.
“That initial questioning by the officer on the bodycam was like wait a minute. This is not adding up. All that’s happening while the child is basically dying in front of the officer, so thankfully there was some sense to suspect what was going on. Those actions saved that child,” Hackney said.
Officer Langston immediately jumped into action to help the child, assessing his condition, and performing a sternum rub to get him breathing again after suspecting the boy had suffered a drug overdose. In the bodycam video, she is heard asking if there were any narcotics inside the apartment.
When Jacksonville Fire Rescue arrived, medical crews gave the child Narcan, a medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, and then rushed the baby to Wolfson Children’s Hospital for treatment.
Doctors said fentanyl was found in his blood, according to JSO.
When detectives searched the apartment, they said they found what they believed to be drugs.
The child was released to a family member after several days of treatment.
Ford remains in the Duval County jail on a half-million-dollar bond.