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A 3-year-old boy received a shock Monday from a deputy’s taser. The deputy was actually trying to arrest a suspect in DeLand Florida.

When the deputy shocked the suspect, the electricity passed through to the child. It happened in the backseat of a car at the DeLand Citro gas station (see map).

It started as a traffic stop, but the situation changed when the deputy recognized a wanted man in the backseat of the car.

Medics checked on Keondrick Hancock on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance after his mother said he was shocked during a sheriff deputy’s attempt to arrest a wanted man.

“He’s inside of the car, shooting the taser with my baby inside the car,” said Toya Willis, the 3-year-old’s mother.

A sheriff’s deputy stopped the car Monday for having windows tinted too dark, but the deputy recognized Sylvester Hill, a man wanted for violating probation for beating a pregnant woman.

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When Hill tried to get out of the car, Deputy Todd Smith grabbed his belt and was pulled inside. The 3-year-old boy, witnesses said, was caught in the middle of it all.

“He then proceeds to do the stun gun. The baby went to screaming and his legs were shaking,” eyewitness Leslie Hardison said.

The sheriff’s office, though, said Deputy Smith was in a dangerous position, dragged inside the car with his head wedged against the door frame.

“The deputy cannot allow himself to be incapacitated. The suspect was going for the taser and at one point gained control of the taser,” said Gary Davidson, Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.

When Smith fired the taser, quarters were so close he was shocked, too. He pulled his handgun out next, but Hill gave up fighting and ran into the neighborhood. A perimeter was set up around the city, but broke down after a two-hour search came up empty.

The deputy has some leg and neck soreness and is being checked at the hospital. The 3-year-old was checked out and returned to his mother.

Read more at WFTV.com

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