Troy Whitaker (Firefighter)
Troy Whitaker (Firefighter)
Troy Whitaker is a fireman with the Hillsborough County Fire Department. [undefined]****
Manslaughter
On September 9th, 2016, at around 4:00 p.m., Whitaker found his 23 month-old son, Lawson, unresponsive in the backseat of his 2011 Chevrolet pickup truck. He performed CPR on the child before calling 911 to report his death. [1]
That morning, Troy dropped off his 5 year-old daughter, Addison, at school, and had also fastened Lawson in the backseat to drop him off at his daycare center.
Instead of dropping him off, he drove home instead.
He returned home around 8:30 a.m. to study for a test.
He later walked his dog, and in the afternoon went to pickup groceries at Publix, not realizing that Lawson was still in the vehicle. When he unloaded his groceries from the vehicle, he witnessed an unresponsive Lawson in the back seat. [undefined]
He kept attempting to revive Lawson, with onlookers and neighbors, including a retired Sheriff in the vicinity, saying that he was "frantic".
He was charged with aggravated manslaughter.