A 21-year-old Florida male is accused of fatally shooting a 2-year-old boy in the head as his mother held him amid an argument with the suspect over a phone, according to an arrest report WJXT-TV obtained.
A witness told police that Steven Dodson Jr. and the mother were arguing “about a phone” outside at the Valencia Way Apartments in Jacksonville late Sunday night, the station said, citing the arrest report. Dodson is the mother’s boyfriend, WJXT said.
‘We is hurting, ‘cause that baby didn’t deserve none of that.’
The witness told police Dodson followed the mother back inside and “into the same room as the children,” the station said, citing the arrest report.
The mother told police Dodson locked the bedroom door behind them, got a gun off a shelf in the bedroom closet, and then fired a shot at her as she held her son, 2-year-old A’hmari Robinson, WJXT said.
The bullet struck the toddler, who died after being rushed to Wolfson Children’s Hospital, the station said.
The arrest report indicates Dodson ran from the apartment and was captured on surveillance video throwing the gun into a dumpster, WJXT said.
Authorities including the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Marshals, and the SWAT Unit took Dodson into custody at the Vista Landing Apartments late Monday after a manhunt, the station said.
Police told WJXT that before officers arrived someone retrieved the gun from the dumpster and brought it back to the apartment where police took it into evidence.
Dodson has been charged with second-degree murder, attempted murder, child neglect, tampering with evidence, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Dodson was denied bond Tuesday, the station said.
Court records show Dodson has had prior arrests over the last three years on charges including strong-arm robbery, domestic battery, and other offenses, WJXT said.
His next court date is set for April 15, the station said.
Robinson’s family expressed their emotions outside the courtroom, the station said.
“Pain. Anger and pain. Pain, hurt,” one family member told WJXT. “And then we already getting fake pages just texting us and threatening. People want to fight my sister. Y’all don’t even know what she’s going through. Y’all don’t know what she went through.”
Another family member added to the station: “We is hurting, ‘cause that baby didn’t deserve none of that.”
Robinson’s aunt started a GoFundMe account to help the family.
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