A 35-year-old forced his girlfriend's 5-year-old son to leave his car as punishment before the child was struck and killed on a highway

• A 35-year-old soldier ordered his girlfriend's 5-year-old child out of the car in the rain near a busy Alabama highway before the child was struck and killed by another car, Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor told reporters.
• Bryan Starr, an Army Sgt. 1st Class, told authorities that the child was being "unruly" before he ordered him to leave the car, Taylor told Alabama's WTVY.
• Starr was charged with reckless murder after the fatal incident, Taylor said.

A 5-year-old boy was killed on an Alabama highway after his mother's boyfriend forced him to leave his car as punishment for being "unruly," WTVY reported.

Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor told the station that a 35-year-old Bryan Starr, who's on active duty at Fort Benning, has been charged with reckless murder after the fatal incident.

Starr told authorities that was driving on Highway 165 with the child, Austin Birdseye, on Sunday when he became "unruly," Taylor told the outlet. The boy's mother was not in the vehicle.

Starr then pulled the car into a nearby church parking lot and told the child to get out. The boy then wandered onto a busy highway, where he was struck by another car and killed, the sheriff told reporters in a Zoom press conference.

Birdseye was pronounced dead at Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital later that night.

"I mean, who thinks to tell a 5-year-old to get out of a car because they're being potentially loud?" Taylor told reporters. "I don't think there is anything that would justify, in my mind, telling this child to get out of the car."

Starr was visibly upset when he spoke to authorities after the child was killed, Taylor said. He had been in a relationship with the child's mother for approximately the last few years, lived with Birdseye in recent years, and was a father figure in his life, the sheriff said during the press conference.

Starr, an Army Sgt. 1st Class, had been deployed to Iraq on one occasion, Fort Benning told WTVY in a statement.

"We are deeply saddened by this tragic event and extend our heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased," the Army post said in the reported statement.

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