Flaviane Carvalho Orlando waitress saves 11 yr old boy from child abuse. Florida parents, Kristen Swann & Timothy Wilson arrested.
An Orlando waitress has been hailed a hero after saving a boy from being abused after a couple denied him food at a Florida restaurant, authorities said.
Flaviane Carvalho, who works at Mrs. Potato Restaurant was serving a table of four on New Year’s Day when she noticed food hadn’t been ordered for the 11-year-old boy, Orlando police said Thursday.
The boy was skinny and had bruises on his face and arms, cops said.
Sensing something was wrong, a quick thinking Carvalho flashed a sign at the boy that only he could see, that read, ‘Are you OK?’
The boy nodded ‘no.’ Carvalho flashed another sign behind his parents’ back saying, ‘Do you need help?’
Stepfather convicted of child abuse after hero Orlando waitress rescued abused boy
‘Do you need help?’
The child nodded ‘yes.’
Carvalho immediately called police, who arrived at the restaurant to question the boy and his parents, police said.
At some point prior to holding up a sign to the boy, Carvalho had approached the couple asking if they would also be ordering food for the emaciated boy who looked on as his parents ate.
Lee and Swann alleged told the server, ‘everything was fine,’ and that the boy would have his dinner at home later that night.
‘I’m a mother also and that was very strange to me because you don’t deny food to a kid, especially at a restaurant,’ Carvalho said at a press conference Thursday. ‘Thank God the boy is safe now.’
‘We probably would be talking about a homicide investigation if she had not intervened,’ Police Chief Orlando Rolón added.
The boy’s stepfather, Timothy Wilson, is accused of beating the boy with a broom and his fists as well as handcuffing him to furniture at home, according to an arrest affidavit cited by the Orlando Sentinel.
‘It was torture. There was no justification for it,’
An evaluation at hospital revealed the 11 year old boy having bruises all over his body along with being severely underweight and in pain, said Orlando Police Detective Erin Lawler, who is leading the investigation.
The child told police that the couple denied him food on a regular basis and would sometimes punish him for failing to complete physical exercises. He described being handcuffed and tied to a large dolly, being hung upside down and struck with a wooden broom, according to police.
‘It was torture. There was no justification for it,’ Lawler said. ‘I’m a mother and seeing what that 11-year-old had to go through, it shocks your soul.’
The boy and his 4-year-old sister were removed by child services.
Cops arrested Wilson, 34, and charged him with aggravated child abuse. The mother, Kristen Swann, 31, was arrested on Jan. 6 and charged with child neglect.
While there was no evidence the boy’s sister, who is Lee and Swann’s biological daughter, was ever assaulted, though Chief Rolón believes it was just a matter of time.
