MIAMI – A Miami man turned himself in at the city’s police headquarters on Tuesday after authorities accused him of abusing his 6-year-old son.
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Samuel Niccolls, 40, of Brickell, is now facing a felony charge.
According to an arrest report, the Florida Department of Children and Families turned over the case, in which “the allegations were the father strangled the child,” to Miami police in early December.
Police said the incident happened on the morning of Nov. 3 at a home in the 3400 block of Poinciana Avenue in the Coconut Grove neighborhood.
The report states that the child’s mother told investigators that while she and Niccolls were “deciding where to have brunch,” the boy was “copying/mimicking” Niccolls while he was on his cellphone.
Then, Niccolls “placed his body on the victim, leaning his weight on the victim while victim’s head was face down on the couch,” it states.
Police said the boy tried to bite or lick Niccolls but Niccolls put his hand on the boy’s face to “deter” him.
“The (child’s mother) heard the victim say he could not breathe to which (Niccolls) did not let up,” the report states. “After a few more minutes, (Niccolls) let up and the victim went to his room.”
Police said in a Nov. 6 interview with the University of Miami Child Protection Team, the boy explained that Niccolls “was on my lungs.”
“He was doing like this on my back,” police said the boy told a Child Protection Team worker. “My back still hurts from it.”
The report states that the boy “demonstrated that his father held him down by pushing against his back with his fist” and “then showed his neck where he had a linear mark and said, ‘I was telling him I can’t breathe.’”
A nurse practitioner “concluded that this case represents physical abuse” after examining the boy, police said.
A judge found probable cause Wednesday to charge Niccolls with child abuse causing no great bodily harm and ordered he be held on a $1,000 bond.
As of Wednesday, he remained in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.