A father has been temporarily banned by a Florida skate park after he was caught kicking his 6-year-old son down a skateboard ramp, ABC News reported.
The incident was captured on video by another skater on Friday afternoon, eventually going viral.
In the footage, the child is seen hesitating with his skateboard to roll down the half-pipe, dubbed Big Brown - the biggest ramp at Kona Skate Park in Arlington - when the father, Marcus Crossland, seemingly becomes impatient with him and kicks him over the edge from the top of the ramp, NY Daily News reported.
Ryan Stephens, 13, said he got a copy of the video and posted it to Instagram because he was so angry at Crossland, who regularly skates at the park with his son.
The teen confronted the father and demanded to know why he shoved the child over the edge.
"I asked him why is he doing this, and then he said 'because he needs to learn,'" Stephens said. "I was like, 'Pushing him down is not teaching him how to drop in.'"
However, the child fortunately did not suffer any injuries. According to witnesses, he got back up to skate again, ABC News reported.
But Crossland has been warned not to return back for a while, Martin Ramos, the park's operator, said.
"Unfortunately parents get so enthusiastic about their kids and their abilities and sometimes they take it a little too far," Ramos said. "[The father] said he was just caught up in the moment, he seemed very remorseful, he certainly understands the gravity of the situation."
Angry responses from the Internet and other parents who regularly skate with their children at Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Fla., has also caused the Florida Department of Children and Families to analyze the footage of the incident.
"It kind of hits right here when you are a parent to see someone do that to a kid," said one father, TJ Smith, who watched the footage later on his phone at the park. "That is somebody who got way too aggressive."
