TAMPA, Fla. — Hillsborough County deputies are investigating the attack of a 13-year-old boy along Dorman Road in Fishhawk.
According to the boy's father, the teen was riding his bike with friends when a man in a silver 4-door pickup truck drove by.
“He yelled threats at them, drove down, then turned around,” Mike Hayes, the victim’s father, said.
Hayes says it was around 2:30 p.m. or 3:00 p.m. yesterday. The driver then veered toward his son.
“He tried to hit two of the boys who got out of the way. When that didn’t work, he tried to hit my son,” he said.
Hayes says his son fell off his bike just before the man in the truck got out and grabbed the teen by the back of his neck.
“The guy got out of the truck, punched him, choked him, slapped him. Punched him in the head repeatedly,” Hayes said.
Hayes took his son to the hospital with some scratches, a sore head and ringing ears. The teen is home now, recovering.
“He’s just trying to make sense of why something like that would happen,” Hayes said.
The father is now handing out flyers he made to help catch the attacker.
“The last thing I want is for these kids to feel like they can no longer be outside and have fun because somebody like this is out trying to, for whatever reason, harm them," he said.
The attacker is described as a thin white man, in his late 30’s to early 40’s, with a shaved head, brown beard, wearing a grey t-shirt.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
