A Minnesota man was nearly run over after attempting to stop a man from spanking his son in public. Jamie Godlewski saw a man hit his son in a manner he felt was far more than a spanking and decided to intercede. After spanking the young boy, Justin Watson allegedly chased Godlewski around the parking lot in his car for 10 minutes. According to interview excerpts republished on The Blaze “when he hit his son on the butt his feet were pretty much parallel to his head and they came back and hit the ground. That’s too much,” the father of three children told local media.
“I didn’t know it would escalate to anything like that at all. I just assumed he would have stopped and left,” Godlewski stated during a CBS News interview video.
Watson allegedly shouted he was going to kill Godlewski and claimed to be a Marine suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. During the alleged attack, Godlewski tried to stay close to light poles for protection from Watson; who was driving so fast his tires were smoking. Watson also allegedly shouted that he was crazy. WCCO-TV contacted the Marine Corps to verify Watson’s claims of belonging to the military, but the Marine Corps had no record of him in their database, according to excerpts republished in The Blaze.
Witnesses to the dangerous game of chicken claim Watson was the aggressor and after he ended chase, he simply pulled to the curb to get his child and drove away. Godlewski told reporters he was never concerned for his own safety, he was just worried about the children.
The Blaze reports that although Watson has never been charged with child abuse, he does have prior assault convictions and charges relating to making terrorist threats.
