Cops: Man Tosses Toddler Onto Busy Freeway

(AP)  The man in hospital scrubs threw the toddler like a doll from a pedestrian overpass to the freeway humming with traffic. The 2½-year-old boy fell 30 feet to the asphalt and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The horrifying incident Thursday on the highway cutting through the heart of the city shocked Honolulu residents, causing panicked parents to phone day care centers to check on their children.

Police arrested a 23-year-old man they say occasionally baby-sat the child after witnesses saw him throwing something, followed him and called authorities.

Kraig Hengst told The Honolulu Advertiser he was working in an apartment garage across the street from the overpass when he saw a man "toss the baby" at about 11:40 a.m.

"I saw the baby high in the air. I thought it was a doll at first," Hengst said. The man held the child in one arm and "tossed it into the air," he said.

One or two vehicles may have struck the boy, but it was unclear exactly what killed him, the newspaper reported.

A white sheet covered the body on the westbound lanes of the H-1 freeway, a major route through downtown that police temporarily closed. The scene was just blocks from the Capitol and the governor's mansion.

The man, who was wearing green hospital scrubs, was taken to the police station and then to a hospital, said police spokeswoman Michelle Yu. She didn't know whether he had a history of mental illness or a criminal record.

"That will be part of the investigation," Yu said.

The suspect screamed "Thank you for everything" to television crews as he was escorted to a cell block. While in a police car, he rocked back and forth in the back seat.

The Queen's Medical Center, the nearest facility with a mental health wing, declined to say whether the man was or had been a patient. But spokeswoman Rebecca Pollard said no patients were missing Thursday and none had been discharged in an unstable condition.

Johnnie Bruen told KITV that the man calmly walked away from the overpass after dropping the child. Bruen later chased the man up a hill among houses and low-rise apartment buildings near the freeway.

"He didn't say anything, he didn't scream; he looked like a normal person standing there smoking a cigarette, except that he had on a smock," Bruen said. "That's just a horrible sight that I seen down there, for any man to do that to a child."

There were no reports of a missing child, police Capt. Frank Fujii said. Officers were contacting day care centers and other area facilities to find out where the child came from.

Hedy Chun, director of a nearby preschool, Kamaaina Kids Honolulu, said 10 to 15 parents called to check on their children. All students were safe, she said, but her staff was shocked.

Gov. Linda Lingle, told of the incident shortly after it happened, called it a "real tragedy."

[Krazcarl]

By the way I don''t care if he has mental issues they will be gone now...

[Krazcarl]

The dispicable human being should feel the hang mans noose, enough said....

[ralan40]

I''m confused...why hasn''t someone investigated whether the Child taunted the man?
If taunting can directly result is a Tiger leaving a 100% secured enclosure at a zoo, than anything is possible.

[b-easy63]

This is starting to be a trend. Just a few days ago, a man tossed 4 kids over a bridge and to their deaths in a river. People are going over the edge and instead of jumping like they did in 1929, they are tossing their or someone else''s kids as a statement of their despair and rage.

[fibonacci_]

What a pleasant guy.

[deemsnyd]

Again I made no mention of singing or dancing or understanding of the accused. I implied that you as an ostensibly sane person seemed to take as much delight and mirth in advocating violent death as a crazy person who threw a child off a bridge. Perhaps you should think about that.

In other words, matvei1107, you are apparently as bugnut dangerous and crazy and violent as he is, you just haven''''t been given the right opportunity to act on
it. Or you really don''''t believe in any of this and your just trolling and smirking about other people''''s dead children. Again LOL!! Fun game.

You''''re pretty broken pal.

Posted by jumkey at 05:24 PM : Jan 18, 2008


I think you are lumping people together with the CHILD KILLER a bit too much, don''t you? What you conveniently fail to recognize is motive. If someone killed the child killer, what is their motive? HE KILLED A CHILD!! What was the child killer''s motive? Nobody knows, but I kinda doubt is was an acceptable one, don''t you? Acting as if people who want to see this guy pay for what he did is as bad as what he did is just plain stupid.

[deemsnyd]

Simply "putting a bullet in his brain" solves nothing - the child is dead. And unfocused rage at the mentally ill person who committed the crime instead of trying to prevent this from happening in the future guarantees that it will happen again.
posted by jumkey


The rage IS focused.

[ontheleft]

In the speech Bush gave today about energy conservation, he noted that cars get the best gas mileage when they are driven on smooth surfaces. He advised against driving over babies when they are thrown on the highway as this results in a bumpy surface with a corresponding decrease in gas mileage. He also noted that not driving over babies would also save lives.

[antizion]

Fox is reporting that a women walked onto a freeway after stripper herself and two children and they were struck and killed.

What is so bad about life in America that people are driven to this madness? Where do I begin?

We just killed 1 million Iraqis, most of whom were the innocents or patriots defending from an invasion. Nobody seems to have a problem shelling out the cash to pay for that. America is insanity under and after crazy zionist rule.

[blackyowe]

I''m thinking the guy is insane and saw the coverage of the man who threw his kids off the bridge last week and wanted the attention especially when he said thank you to the TV crews after tossing the baby from the overpass. The thing is whose baby is this? It''s horrific!