RUSSELL COUNTY, Ala. (WRBL) – A Fort Benning soldier faces a reckless murder charge after investigators say he made the 5-year-old son of his live-in girlfriend get out of a vehicle because he was “being unruly,” leading to the boy being struck by another vehicle on a busy highway on a dark, rainy night.
Russell County Sheriff’s investigators say the deadly crash happened Sunday night around 8:00 PM along Hwy 165. The little boy has been identified as Austin Birdseye.
According to investigators, 35-year-old Bryan Starr told detectives the child was being unruly in the vehicle, so he pulled over in the rain at a church and told the boy to get out. Starr told investigators he lost track of the boy in the rain. Investigators say the boy wandered onto the busy highway and was struck by another vehicle. Birdseye died later at Piedmont Columbus Regional.
“It’s just horrific. I can’t imagine the mother’s grief that she is going through. It’s just tough. What do you say to that? What is your thought process when you tell a 5-year-old to get out of the car on a rainy night because they were loud in the car? It’s just heartbreaking,” said Sheriff Taylor.
Taylor said the driver of the vehicle that hit Birdseye was not at fault and is devastated.
Taylor said Birdseye’s mother was not in the vehicle at the time of the deadly incident. Starr and Birdseye were just a few miles away from the home the couple shares in Fort Mitchell when Starr told the child to get out of the vehicle.
Taylor said he does not know how long the child was outside of the vehicle before being hit. Investigators are pulling video from the church parking lot.
Starr was questioned by police at the hospital when he shared the events with investigators. Taylor says Starr is in the process of being arrested and will be booked into the Russell County Detention Facility, where a mug shot will be made public. Taylor says Starr will be eligible for a bond.
Fort Benning officials did not immediately return requests for comment. Alabama Troopers are investigating the crash along with the Russell County Sheriff’s Office.
More Crime Coverage From 8News
- The Henrico County Police Department is investigating a disturbing letter from a known hate group delivered to a resident in Sandston.
- The Ettrick Deli of River Road in Chesterfield County has been burglarized for the fifth time in three months, and now police in Chesterfield are looking for the public's help in identifying a suspect in the most recent break-in.
- More than 10 years after Samantha Clarke went missing from her home in Orange County, investigators are reclassifying the case as an abduction and murder investigation.
- Officials are reporting a possible bomb threat at the Virginia Supreme Court in downtown Richmond.
- MONROE, Wis. (AP) — A 16-year-old boy has admitted fatally shooting his newborn daughter and leaving her body inside a fallen tree in the woods in southern Wisconsin, according to prosecutors. Logan Kruckenburg-Anderson, of Albany, is charged as an adult with first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse. He's being held on $1 million bail […]
- A U.S. Navy SEAL has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for his role in the hazing death of a U.S. Army Green Beret in Africa.
- 35-year-old Cornelle Parker and 31-year-old Meredith Williams were arrested on drug charges, in Stafford, in addition to being wanted for outstanding warrants.
- A Philadelphia judge has denied a request to revoke bail for two Virginia men who traveled to the Pennsylvania Convention Center where votes were being counted and were arrested originally on weapons charges, despite prosecutors’ objections that they attended a rally last week that turned into a violent siege of the U.S. Capitol building.
- What we know about the about people arrested after photos, video showed them at the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.
- One man is dead following a shooting in the 2300 block of Ambrose Street on Wednesday night. The Richmond Police Department identified Jamoine Tyler, a man in his 30s as the victim.
