Florida man grabbed 4-year-old, threw her at column, cops say. He went looking for more kids
A mother and her 4-year-old daughter were sitting on a Broward bus bench at night when a man approached them, police said. But she couldn’t have guessed what would unfold next — her child flying through the air toward a concrete beam moments later.
Barry Steven Nockowitz, 65, is facing charges of child abuse without great bodily harm and battery. He was released from jail Thursday after paying an $11,000 bail.
Sometime before 8 p.m. Tuesday, the mother and child, whose identities were not released, saw Nockowitz approach them at the bus bench in the 110 block of North Pine Island Road in Plantation.
Nockowitz grabbed the 4-year-old by her head, lifted her off the ground and subsequently threw her at one of the bus terminal’s concrete columns. He promptly walked off, Plantation police said.
The little girl did not have any “obvious injuries,” but was treated at the scene and did not need hospital treatment.
A block away, officers caught up with Nockowitz, who spontaneously said he would “not stand for antisemitism in this country” and that he just “grabbed the little girl and threw her.”
When asked where he was going, Nockowitz had a disturbing answer:
“To find another kid.”
“The defendant disturbingly indicated to officers he was in search of additional children to victimize...,” an officer wrote in an arrest report.
This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 8:55 PM.
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