JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Home video taken by Oscar Lopez, has become an online sensation.
"I heard him yell please, please no, I heard him crying," Lopez said.
It shows his neighbor Anthony Sanchez, playing catch with his stepson then snapping. He walks over to the young boy and starts beating him with a belt apparently for dropping the baseball.
A short time later, Lopez steps in. "That's enough! I'm having a (expletive) problem with you for beating the (expletive) out of him for not catching the (expletive) ball," he said.
"You know my son?" Sanchez asked in the video.
Turns out, Sanchez is a water agency director in southern California. Lopez says that might have disturbed him most of all.
"I was extremely disappointed and in shock because this was an elected official," Lopez said.
John Harrell with the Department of Children and Families says Lopez did the right thing by speaking up.
"We depend on the public to report abuse to us. We can't be in every driveway all the time. We need to hear from the public if a child's being abused," he said.
The Department of Children and Families defines abuse as leaving a mark, a scar or injury to a child. In the last year, Duval County has seen a 26 percent increase in the number of reports. If you see something fishy the state encourages you to call it in.
"They may not know for sure that a child is being injured, but still if they suspect that's the case, they need to contact us, so we at DCF can look into the matter," Harrell said.
Lopez is all about that accountability.
"I just couldn't hold back anymore. I charged downstairs I bolted through the back sliding door and hopped up on the fence and kind of just stayed up there on my hands hanging on the fence letting him know someone had seen him," he said.
