‘LIKE HE WAS DRINKING WATER’

Florida Parents Arrested After 6-Year-Old Found With Head in Hotel Toilet

Five other children displaying signs of physical abuse were also found at the Knights Inn.

A 6-year-old boy was found with his head in the toilet of a Florida hotel earlier this month, “like he was drinking water,” according to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office. Discovered by deputies badly injured and without a pulse, the child was taken to a hospital and placed on life support for a brain bleed, local outlets reported Wednesday. Five other children were also in the room at the Knights Inn, all displaying signs of physical abuse. Their parents, who moved the family into the hotel in April, now face several child neglect charges. Larry Rhodes and Bianca Blaise initially told deputies that the children, who ranged in age from infancy to 6 years old, had gotten into a fight, according to an arrest report. But when a 4-year-old with “fresh cuts” around the mouth was asked, he replied: “Daddy hit me.” Later, Blaise told investigators that Rhodes had “whooped” the siblings in the past, and that he had recently run out of a prescription to treat schizophrenia. The 6-year-old remains in critical condition, WESH reported.