SUNRISE, FLORIDA — A Florida tow truck driver is facing a criminal charge after police say he hauled away a car he claimed was “illegally parked” while a 4-year-old girl was inside, and surveillance video shows the child’s father chasing the tow truck and yelling that his daughter was inside before the child opened a door and “fell into the roadway.”

An arrest report obtained by Law&Crime states that Sergio Jesus Suarez is charged with child neglect. The report alleges the tow truck driver “initiated the tow and drove away without exiting the vehicle or checking the towed vehicle for occupants, despite [the father] running toward the truck, yelling, and banging on the driver’s window stating that a child was inside.”

Police said the girl’s father told investigators he was inside the Bistro Creole restaurant in Sunrise for “approximately” two minutes when he saw his Honda Accord being towed by Suarez. Suarez claims his “spotter” never mentioned a child being inside the vehicle, according to the report.

“[The father] explained that the tow truck had already lifted his vehicle when he reached it,” police allege. The report says he ran to the driver’s side window, banged on the window, and yelled multiple times that his daughter was inside, but police allege that “despite this, the tow truck driver accelerated and left the parking lot with the child still inside the vehicle.”

The father allegedly chased Suarez and the tow truck through a plaza and onto West Oakland Park Boulevard while continuing to yell. He told police he then saw his daughter “fall out of the vehicle onto the roadway,” according to the report. Police said the girl was hospitalized with injuries to both arms and her right calf.

“[The father] immediately ran into traffic, picked up his daughter … and moved her to safety,” the report says, citing statements made by a witness that police said corroborated the father’s account.

The report describes the witness statement as follows: “She heard yelling and observed a tow truck pulling a black sedan while [the father] chased the truck, yelling repeatedly.” The witness told police she saw the rear driver-side door open and a child fall out of the vehicle. She also said the tow truck was traveling at a high rate of speed at the time and continued driving eastbound after the child fell into the roadway.

The surveillance video, which was obtained by local Fox affiliate WSVN, allegedly shows Suarez initiating the tow and driving away without exiting the vehicle or checking the father’s Honda for occupants.

Police said Suarez’s failure to inspect the vehicle prior to towing it, along with his decision to keep driving after being alerted that a child was inside, created a “foreseeable and substantial risk of serious bodily harm or death,” which investigators said led to the charge. The arrest report states: “His actions constituted culpable negligence and demonstrated a reckless disregard for the safety of a minor, directly resulting in injury to the child.”

Suarez appeared at a bond hearing Monday night, during which a Broward County judge criticized his alleged actions. “This is one that stuck out to me this morning,” Judge Corey Friedman said, according to WSVN. “He admitted that he didn’t look at the vehicle and I think it’s also on surveillance.”

Suarez’s lawyer said in court that Suarez told him he checked the father’s Honda three times before towing it and claimed, “There was no child inside,” the attorney reportedly said.

Suarez was released on bond Monday, and police said his next court date has not been scheduled yet. The case remains pending in court.

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