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A careless California dad has been charged in the death of his autistic 2-year-old son after driving the family car directly into flood waters during a storm to get home — and the tot drowned, cops said Tuesday.
Brandon Padilla-Aguilera, 26, of Barstow was driving the white sedan home from his grandmother’s funeral with his nonverbal little boy Xavier on Sept. 18 when the father allegedly made the fatal decision to attempt to plow across a flooded street.
The car quickly became flooded, and the panicked dad scrambled out with Xavier, but the child was eventually torn from him by the rushing waters, authorities said.
The dad ended up on a patch of ground and was soon rescued, while Xavier’s body was found the next day in a flood control channel.
Last week, a month after the tragedy, Padilla-Aguilera was taken into custody, and Tuesday, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department booked him on one count of suspicion of murder, according to release from the Barstow Police Department.
“Over the course of the month-long investigation, detectives spoke with witnesses and gathered evidence,’’ cops said in a statement. “Based on evidence obtained, detectives secured an arrest warrant for him,’’ officials said in the release.
The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office told The Post later Tuesday that it ended up charging the suspect with one count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of child abuse under circumstances of condition likely to cause great bodily injury or death.
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