Gainesville Police arrested a man accused of beating his disabled father and leaving him on the ground for three days.
Police charged David Roland Bickford, 53, of 4002 NW 31st Terrace, with aggravated abuse of an elderly or disabled adult.
According to a GPD arrest report, Bickford and his father, David Mowat Bickford, 72, got into an argument Friday at their house. During the fight, Bickford picked up his father’s wheelchair and dumped him on the ground.
He then punched his father in the chest, grabbed and wrenched his nose, kicked him in the stomach and ground the father’s hand into the floor with his foot. Bickford then left his father lying on the ground.
At about 8:30 a.m. Monday, the father’s caregiver, Sheryl Baer, arrived at the house to check on him. She found the father unresponsive and lying in a puddle of his own urine.
Baer told Bickford to call for help. He refused, but eventually called 911 after Baer threatened to call police.
She asked Bickford how long his father had been on the ground. Since Friday, he replied. She then asked how long he had planned to leave his father on the floor.
“Until he was dead!” he said, according to the report.
After police arrested him Monday, Bickford denied throwing his father out of the wheelchair. The father was taken to North Florida Regional Medical Center later Monday, and a hospital spokeswoman said Tuesday that he is in “critically stable” condition.
Police booked Bickford into Alachua County Jail on Monday, where he remained Tuesday with a $15,000 bond.
Contact Chris Alcantara at calcantara@alligator.org.
