School bus assistant arrested and fired after allegedly spraying child with cleaning solution

A Virginia school bus assistant is facing four felony charges and was fired after he allegedly sprayed a 7-year-old with cleaning solution last week after the child reportedly spit on him.

Police arrested David Keith Blackwell, a 70-year-old bus assistant for the York County School Division, in eastern Virginia, on Dec. 6 on three felony counts of malicious bodily injury by means of any caustic substance and one felony count of abuse and neglect of children after the alleged incident, according to a Facebook post from the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office.

According to the sheriff’s office, Blackwell was booked into the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail. Online records showed he was no longer an inmate as of Monday afternoon.

Blackwell could not immediately be reached for comment.

A spokesperson for the York County School Division said Blackwell is no longer employed by the division, where he had been employed since September 2016.

“The York County School Division is committed to providing safe, secure and caring environments in which all individuals demonstrate mutual trust and respect,” Katherine Goff, public relations and communications officer for the school district, said in a statement provided to NBC News.