A Baltimore father delivered an emotional plea to save his son, calling out the city’s criminal justice system after his son, an accused serial carjacker, was released from prison.
Santiago Garcia-Diaz joined “Fox & Friends First” Tuesday to discuss why he wants his son behind bars and his appeal to prosecutors, who now want to charge him with neglect, if he refuses to pick up his son from jail.
“I’ve been begging for help for my child for two and a half years,” Garcia-Diaz told co-host Todd Piro. “I’ve had petitions signed by judges to have him to have him sent away for mental eval[uation]. I have no idea what else to do. Like, I’ve tried everything. I’m at the end of my wit… What else does a father do to save his child’s life?”
CARJACKINGS IN CITIES LIKE NYC, PHILADELPHIA JUMP OVER 200% – OFTEN WITH KIDS BEHIND THE WHEEL, OFFICIALS SAY
“He’s running with the wrong crowd,” he continued. “I live in a dangerous area… in Baltimore… What else should I do?”
Garcia-Diaz’s son, 15-year-old Bryce Garcia-Diaz, had 18 out of the 19 charges he was facing dropped. He is accused of running over a police officer and crashing a stolen car.
Accused carjacker 15-year-old Bryce Garcia-Diaz
Garcia-Diaz is worried his son may not come home alive one day, based on the path he has been on.
“The last time he disappeared for over a week, he came home, and we had to rush to the hospital, and they said that we wouldn’t have brought him in, he would have been dead,” Garcia-Diaz said.
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“My son was born with a chronic lung disease where he doesn’t get a full expulsion of his lungs, and he smoked weed all the time, he smoked cigarettes, and it had gotten so bad that he couldn’t breathe,” he continued.
Juvenile crime has soared in many big cities nationwide, with Baltimore being one of them, and carjackings top the list of prevalent offenses.
But Garcia-Diaz says changes to Baltimore law have enabled minors to evade responsibility for their actions.
“As of June 1st, they changed the laws for the juvenile justice system to where they can only be charged with certain crimes at certain times, and they got to go through so many steps before they can actually make a move to really do anything against the child now,” Garcia-Diaz said. “It’s ridiculous.”
Among those changes, children under 10 years of age cannot be charged with any crime, and minors under 18 years of age can have their identities protected.