Video of man kicking son down ramp at Jacksonville skate park goes viral

A video of a man kicking his child off a ramp at a local skate park is causing an uproar Saturday on social media.


The video, which was originally posted Friday by Ryan Stephens (Intsagram user @lilbubs) shows Marcus Crossland kicking his 6-year-old son down a skateboard ramp nicknamed Big Brown at Kona Skate Park in Arlington.

The video was shared by a popular Jacksonville Instagram account, IGersJax, and was circulated around other social media sites Saturday.

"Unfortunately parents get so enthusiastic about their kids and their abilities in skateboarding, or baseball, or football or whatever and sometimes they take it a little too far," Martin Ramos, Kona's operator, said.

Ramos said the boy and his father often skate together at the park and he has never seen any behavior similar to that seen in the video before.

"He [Crossland] said he was just caught up in the moment. He seemed very remorseful. He certainly understands the gravity of the situation and it seems like he is going to be answering to this thing for quite some time to come," Ramos said.

Crossland told First Coast News that the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office wants to speak to him and declined further comment.

The child, nicknamed Dino the Dinosaur, and his dad are well known around Kona. Dino is known as a skateboarding 'prodigy'.

The video was posted on the First Coast News Facebook page and sparked a long list of angry comments.

First Coast News reached out to the Department of Children and Families to find out if it was aware of the video. DCF spokesperson John Harrell said he had not seen the video and in order for DCF to investigate, someone with direct knowledge of the incident would need to report it.

Stephens, 13, said his friend shot the video but Stephens posted it because he said it was bad and didn't want to see the father push his son so hard.

Stephens said he confronted Crossland after he saw the video to ask him why he pushed his son.

"He said 'because he needs to learn'. I was like 'pushing him down is not teaching him how to drop in'. And then he said 'do you think you can raise him better than me?' and I said yes," Stephens said.

Ramos asked Crossland not to return to the park, at least for a while.

"I encouraged him to put the fun back in it and get out of all the events and all this delusions of grandeur that have him kind of motivated," Ramos said.

Видео Video of man kicking son down ramp at Jacksonville skate park goes viral канала Optrex