Video: Father left after dying son rushed to hospital
Dec. 27--For more than two minutes after an ambulance sped away with his dying son, Natividad de Jesus Hernandez knelt by the side of Brock Road at the spot where he'd just accidentally run over the boy. Two other children are by his side.
Hernandez and the two children, as seen on a sheriff's vehicle dash-camera recording, appear to simply wait. No one comes.
Eventually the three piled in Hernandez's minivan and left. After that, according to documents filed in Marysville Municipal Court this morning, Hernandez drove from Plain City to his Steltzer Road home in Columbus, changed his clothes and asked his girlfriend what to do.
About two hours elapsed before he showed up at Dublin Methodist Hospital to inquire about 4-year-old Angel Gustbabo Hernandez. By then, Angel already was dead, killed after he tumbled out the sliding side door of his father's van as it pulled from the residential construction site on Brock Road at about 11 a.m. yesterday.
Hernandez told authorities that he was there to steal scrap construction material to sell and he pulled away from the site because a work van had pulled in. Angel was not secured in a booster seat or buckled into a seatbelt and, as the Hernandez's van went northbound on Brock Road, the boy opened the door and fell out. Then, the van struck him, the State Highway Patrol said.
A Union County deputy sheriff and paramedics arrived, loaded the boy into the ambulance and began life-saving efforts as it sped away with all the emergency personnel inside, leaving Hernandez and his other children alone. The deputy left his SUV behind as he went along to help save the boy, knowing other help was on the way, and his camera continued to record.
Hernandez, 30, was booked into the Tri-County Regional Jail on a felony charge related to leaving the scene of a crash. Court records indicate that he gave authorities three fake identifications and provided officials with three different birthdates. He told troopers that he is in the United States illegally.
Municipal Court Judge Michael J. Grigsby set Hernandez's bond at $500,000 today and said he would not allow 10 percent of that to be posted as often happens in municipal court. The rest of the hearing's business was postponed until Monday, however, because the court must find a translator to assist Hernandez before legal proceedings can continue, Court Clerk Chuck Crowley said.
Copyright 2013 - The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
