PALM BAY, Fla. – A man arrested Monday by Palm Bay police is accused of attacking a boy who was fishing on an embankment that the suspect claimed was part of his property, according to his arrest report.
Officers responded around 6 p.m. to the area, which the report leaves redacted.
The victim and multiple juvenile witnesses told police that he was fishing at a lake — behind and not on the property in question, investigators wrote — when 46-year-old Wesley Boyd “came out screaming at (the boy) and approaching him,” the report states.
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Boyd told the boy to leave but as he did, Boyd then allegedly grabbed him from behind and around his neck, hitting him in his right knee and causing him to fall before throwing his fishing rod in the water, investigators wrote.
When police made contact with Boyd, he told officers that the boy walked a few feet away and casted his line again after being told to leave, according to the report. Boyd said he then reached around the boy, grabbed his fishing pole, and threw it into the lake, adding “at some point (the boy) slipped and fell to the ground,” the report states. The boy was “not on the property line” when the alleged attack occurred, police said.
Boyd was arrested and faces a charge of child abuse without great bodily harm, records show. At his first appearance on Tuesday, he was ordered to have no contact with the victim and was granted bond which has since been posted.
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