{"id":337668,"date":"2026-07-12T15:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/337668\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T15:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:11:08","slug":"mother-relieved-after-man-accused-of-attacking-her-and-son-12-in-fort-lauderdale-arrested-nbc-6-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/337668\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother relieved after man accused of attacking her and son, 12, in Fort Lauderdale arrested \u2013 NBC 6 South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Fort Lauderdale mother said she and her 12-year-old son with autism are finally beginning to feel a sense of relief after the man accused of randomly attacking them<\/a> earlier this week was arrested.<\/p>\n

Fort Lauderdale police identified the suspect as 44-year-old Hutch Benjamin. He is charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.<\/p>\n

The attack happened on Tuesday morning as the mother, Chrissy, and her nonverbal son were walking to a school bus stop.<\/p>\n

Surveillance video<\/a> released by police shows the pair being attacked by a man carrying what Chrissy described as either a cane or a bat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just hurts, especially for it to happen to my child,\u201d Chrissy said. \u201cIt just really, really hurts a whole lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

After releasing the surveillance video and asking the public for help identifying the suspect, Fort Lauderdale police arrested Benjamin on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really relieved that somebody like this is finally put away,\u201d Chrissy said.<\/p>\n

NBC6 found an older mugshot of Benjamin from last year, when he was re-arrested in connection with a 2024 robbery.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, he has issues, but at least this person is off the streets,\u201d Chrissy said. \u201cI\u2019m grateful the police did their job. They did the job tremendously, to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Chrissy and her son were treated at a hospital for cuts and bruises.<\/p>\n

She said she has worked hard to help her son navigate the world independently, making Tuesday\u2019s attack especially painful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just pray for justice,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody needs to be aware, protect yourself, and be aware of your surroundings. These are children. We\u2019re making a future for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Fort Lauderdale mother said she and her 12-year-old son with autism are finally beginning to feel a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-337668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}