Horrified passengers looked on as a California father told his crying seven-year-old son to “toughen up” and ended up throwing him into a busy harbor on a tour boat, according to police.
Former Marine sergeant Sloane Briles, 35, was arrested for child endangerment and resisting arrest, AP reports.
"The father hit him several times and then threatened to throw him overboard if he didn't stop crying," a police spokesman says. "The crowd on the boat became very angry at the father for hitting the kid and extremely angry when he threw him overboard."
The father eventually jumped in after the boy—who was not an expert swimmer—but he had already been rescued, the police spokesman says. The father become so combative during his arrest that deputies claimed they had to tackle him to the ground.
The boy was released unharmed into the care of his mother, who divorced Briles in 2007. He was only “roughhousing” with the boy, she told the New York Daily News.
By David Wilkening
