Florida man charged with beating 5-year-old boy ‘for being gay’

A Florida man faces child abuse charges after allegedly beating a 5-year-old boy “for being gay.”

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrested Andre Brown Jr. on charges of aggravated child abuse and resisting arrest. An arrest report says police found evidence that he had hit a five-year-old boy with a belt, leaving marks and bruises on his legs, arms, back, and stomach. He is also accused of abusing two other children in his care, according to a press release.

“This was a brutal and hateful attack on a defenseless child. There is absolutely no excuse for it,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, a Republican who has touted his tough-on-crime record. “We will make sure justice is served, and these children get the safety and support they deserve.”

Andre Brown Jr.Polk County Sheriff's Office

Authorities say the 33-year-old Davenport man struck three children in his home. It was the beating of the 5-year-old that prompted one of the children, a 9-year-old girl, to contact her mother by text to report the abuse.

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“I’m scared,” the girl wrote, “he’s whooping him so hard, I’m scared."

It wasn’t immediately clear why the children were left in Brown’s care, but the text prompted a report to the Sheriff’s Office on May 3. Deputies investigated and found signs of abuse in all three children, but said the 5-year-old had been severely beaten.

The 5-year-old told investigators Brown was mad at him “for being gay.”

He was more severely bruised than either of the other children allegedly abused by Brown, according to deputies. The girl suffered bruises on her arm, and another young boy had bruises on his arms and legs. But the 5-year-old also had a fracture in his right wrist and a contusion, in addition to the marks and bruises all over his body.

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Brown tried to pull away from deputies and started yelling when he was arrested, according to the official report. That resulted in an additional charge of resisting arrest. Deputies said that because Brown broke the child’s bone “for the belief of being gay,” they would investigate the aggravated child abuse charge as a hate crime. That means he could face life in prison if convicted of the felony.

Brown remains in custody at the Polk County Jail, according to records. A booking sheet shows that he is currently married and unemployed.

Deputies say Brown has an extensive criminal history, including arrests for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, burglary, battery, assault with a deadly weapon, theft, kidnapping, home invasion robbery with a firearm, battery on a pregnant person, driving under the influence, possession of a weapon on school property, domestic battery strangulation, and dating violence.