A Maryland father has been charged with child abuse and assault after he allegedly pushed his son to commit suicide.
The father, 46, has been charged with a slew of crimes, including first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, second-degree child abuse, use of a firearm in a violent crime, failing to send his child to school, and providing means of assisting suicide, among others.
Police responded to a Nov. 20 call to an Anne Arundel County high school to find a teenage boy accusing his father of multiple counts of child abuse and of providing him with a shotgun to kill himself. The boy said his father beat him several times between Jan. 19 and June 30. He said that in several incidents, the father used extension cords and belts to beat the teen until he “saw weird colors in [his] eyes, and it started turning black.”
The teen left to live with his aunt several times but always had to return home. At one point, the teen admitted to his mother that he was contemplating suicide. His father retrieved a shotgun, forced it into the teens hands, and ordered, “Do it. Do it. End it now.”
