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At this hour, Ross McCoy is scheduled to appear in Denver County Court to be formally advised of the charges against him — and there are plenty, including child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury.
McCoy didn’t strike his two-year-old son, Zayden. Instead, he nearly ran him over, then fled the scene in a vehicle he was breaking the law by driving.
Check out photos, a video, a police report and details below.
According to a probable cause statement shared here, McCoy has been designated as a habitual traffic offender, and his license was revoked for a five year period ending in August 2014. Moreover, he’s also the less-than-proud owner of a restraining order taken out against him by Danielle Hernandez-Woodall, the mother of Zayden and three other kids — seven-year-old twins and a four year old — for reasons of domestic violence.
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Hernandez-Woodall told 9News McCoy is allowed to see the youngsters but not her. Around 9 p.m. on June 21, however, he called her to say he had some groceries for the kids and offered to give the whole crew a ride — an offer she accepted.
And which she would come to regret.
Police say Zayden was placed in the rear passenger seat of McCoy’s ride and strapped in with a shoulder and lap belt. But as McCoy was turning at the intersection of 40th Avenue and Lisbon Street, the toddler managed to unfasten the belt and open the door, causing him to fall into the street. Hernandez-Woodall told 9News that “when I got out, the car was sitting on [the] baby’s head,” leading some news agencies to report that Zayden had actually been run over. Fortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Although he suffered multiple skull fractures, he’s expected to recover — something that’s hard to imagine had the tire actually rolled over him.
McCoy’s reaction to all this? He’s said to have assisted Zayden and Hernandez-Woodall to the side of the road, then split.
He wasn’t free for long. Aurora police officers spotted him near 7th Place and Nucla Street and took him into custody without incident a few short minutes later. Under questioning, he’s quoted as saying that he rabbited “due to his license status.”
This offense led the Denver District Attorney’s Office to hit McCoy with an aggravated driving after revocation count, in addition to the aforementioned child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury charge, and beefs pertaining to leaving the scene of an accident, child abuse without injury and violation of a protection order — three felonies and two misdemeanors total.
Here’s a larger look at McCoy’s mug shot, followed by the 9News report and the probable cause statement.
Ross McCoy Probable Cause Statement
More from our Colorado Crimes archive: “John Vigil pleads guilty to fatal child abuse case after years in mental hospital.”
