- December 16, 2025
Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies arrested David Romero, 35, Thursday morning on a charge of felony child abuse after he threatened to toss his 2-year-old son into a pool and then used the child as a shield when deputies arrived.
Deputies said when they responded around 7:30 a.m. to a home at 40 Laramie Drive, they found a heavily intoxicated Romero. He was holding the child with his arms around the child’s neck and refused to put the boy down as requested by deputies.
The child’s mother, Yeney Castaneda, told deputies that she and her husband, Romero, had been arguing earlier in the morning, and she left to go to a friend’s house at 40 Laramie Drive which was behind the couple’s home at 7 Laramie Drive. Romero then showed up at the friend’s house, holding the child and threatening to throw the toddler into the pool if Castaneda did not come out to talk.
Deputies said they ordered the man to free the child, but Romero turned to run inside the screen porch. He began swinging the child as if tossing him into the pool. Deputies quickly grabbed him by the back of the shirt and forced him to the ground. The child was uninjured and safely retrieved by deputies.
Romero was additionally charged with resisting arrest without violence, and disorderly intoxication. He was being held in the Flagler County Inmate Facility without bond Thursday afternoon.
