Suspected drunk driver hits bus stop, boy dies

A Florida sheriff ’s deputy was sleeping Thursday afternoon when his 11-year-old daughter called and asked him to pick her up at her school bus stop. Seconds later, she started screaming into the phone, “Dad, help me, help me!”

Polk County Sheriff ’s Deputy Jonathan “JJ” Quintana said at a news conference Friday that he assumed the worst as he jumped out of bed and ran barefoot to the bus stop. He found his daughter safe, but immediately saw the carnage left when a suspected drunken driver hit five of her fellow Dundee Ridge Middle Academy students as they were walking home from the stop.

Quintana, 30, ran back home for his patrol car, then drove back to the scene to assist the injured children. The deputy — still limping and visibly shaken Friday — said a witness at the scene pointed out the car that had allegedly just crashed into the children.

Quintana saw the black vehicle had hit another car down the road. The driver then stumbled out of the vehicle.

Quintana arrested John Camfield, 48, of nearby Davenport, a former law enforcement officer who worked for 10 different agencies in Mississippi before moving to Florida in 2012.

Officials said Jahiem Robertson, 13, died of his injuries Friday in an Orlando hospital. Another child, John Mena, also 13, remains in intensive care with orbital fractures. Three other children — Jonte Robinson, 15; Jasmine Robertson, 14; and Rylan Pryce, 12 — suffered minor injuries.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Camfield refused to take a breath test after his arrest and said Camfield was being somewhat lighthearted until a lieutenant advised him that two of the children he hit were in critical condition.

“He said, if that’s the case, put me under the jail,” Judd said.

At that point, he agreed to take a breath test and a blood draw.

“Seven hours after the crash, he still read a .14,” Judd said — nearly twice Florida’s legal limit.