An Ormond Beach man was arrested Saturday after Volusia County deputies say he sprayed bleach on a sleeping 4-year-old child and soaked a bedroom in tiki torch fuel before threatening to burn the house down.
Mack Arline, 31, was booked into jail on multiple charges, including aggravated child abuse, attempted arson and driving under the influence.
Deputies responded to the home after a mother of three children showed authorities a video of Arline kicking a plastic toy car into the 4-year-old boy’s face as he slept, then spraying him in the face with Clorox and telling him to wake up while using profanity, said Andrew Gant, a spokesperson for the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
A second video also showed Arline emptying a bottle of fuel on the bed, furniture and carpet of another bedroom. The mother said Arline was “heavily intoxicated and threatening to burn down the house and kill their children,” according to Gant.
When deputies arrived, they found Arline backing out of the driveway in a vehicle with an 11-month-old baby clad in a diaper on his chest in front of the steering wheel and a 2-year-old toddler in the front passenger seat unrestrained. They also found a bottle of Grey Goose vodka in the vehicle with Arline, who was not coherent and smelled like alcohol, Gant said.
Deputies found the 4-year-old child still sleeping on the floor of a bedroom with a Clorox spray bottle next to him, Gant said. In another bedroom, they found an empty bottle of tiki torch fuel on the bed, which was wet along with the furniture.
Arline violated his probation on a previous charge of false imprisonment.
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