Firefighters say the father was attacking his 2-year-old daughter in a barricaded bedroom when they arrived.
By Bridget Murphy
Florida Times-Union
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville firefighters said that when they went into a burning apartment to save lives Tuesday night, they didn’t expect to see someone trying to take a child’s life right in front of them.
But after fire Capt. Steve Boudreau and firefighter David Spencer got inside a bedroom barricaded with furniture, they said they found a father crushing his 2-year-old daughter on the floor.
They said in Times-Union interviews Wednesday that, with air masks and other firefighting gear strapped on, they wrestled the man and rescued the toddler from his grip.
Once outside, rescuers got the 2-year-old breathing again and took her to Shands Jacksonville hospital. Police said she was in critical condition Wednesday, but fire officials said her condition improved and they’d been told she would make it.
Police identified the attacker as Johnnie Everette Young and charged him with arson and domestic battery as they waited to see if the child survived.
Police accused the 25-year-old man of setting fire to his family’s apartment after locking himself inside with his 2-month-old son and daughter when their mother, Brittany Grubbs, ran outside to escape a beating.
Young’s sister Nicole Brown told the Times-Union that family members had her brother involuntarily committed just days ago for mental-health treatment and drug detox.
Brown said they didn’t know he had gotten out until they got a call about the fire and found out her niece might not live.
Grubbs told police that she woke up in the bedroom her children also were sleeping in as Young choked her. Neighbors at the Windy Pines complex at 6650 103rd St. said she ran into the street in just a T-shirt and underwear about 10:15 p.m., banging on doors and screaming for someone to call police.
Ashley Pope, 28, answered his door and gave her his phone.
“She was desperate. She was just wanting to get them out of there,” Pope said of Grubbs’ concern for her children.
Another neighbor gave Grubbs a blanket to cover herself as firefighters from Engine 25 and then a police sergeant soon arrived.
Firefighters were responding only to provide medical care and didn’t know there was a fire.
Authorities said police Sgt. Lakesha Anderson looked inside the apartment, saw the 2-month-old lying on the floor and the fire and kicked in the front door.
Authorities said Grubbs scooped up her son and firefighters rushed to get their gear on before taking a hose inside to fight the flames and search for the 2-year-old and his father.
When they forced their way into the charred back bedroom, the firefighters saw the father on his knees on the floor “actually squeezing the baby,” Spencer said.
“I kept saying, ‘Give me the baby!’ He said, ‘No! No!’ ”
After a struggle of about 30 to 45 seconds, they got the child free.
“I was able to pry his arms apart and I yelled for the captain to grab the baby,” Spencer said.
The captain did.
“I carried the baby out of the house. She was just lifeless,” Boudreau said of the limp, unconscious bundle that he and other rescuers began to resuscitate.
In the meantime, Spencer handed his mask and air-pack off to a police officer who went back in the house to hunt for the father.
But police said the man jumped out a bedroom window and they used a Taser to make him surrender.
Pope, the neighbor who helped Grubbs, said it sounded like police shocked the man at least a few times.
Grubbs told police that Young was high on cocaine when the violence broke out. His arrest history includes several past arrests on drug charges, according to state records.
Rescuers also took Young to Shands Jacksonville for treatment, where they absentee-booked him on the criminal charges.
He didn’t make a first appearance in court Wednesday. Officials said he remained in the hospital. His sister said they didn’t know details about his condition but confirmed Wednesday night that her 2-year-old niece was recovering although she still had tubes in her body to help her breathe.
“She’s trying to take them out herself,” Brown said after speaking with Grubbs from the hospital. “She’s doing better.”
Copyright 2007 The Florida Times-Union