A few months after responding to the scene when a little boy’s father killed his mother and sister, a Florida deputy adopted the now-12-year-old who survived the attack.
Three years later, with the murderer now sentenced to life in prison, Corporal Mike Blair of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and his family are sharing their story publicly for the first time.
“For us, he’s our family,” said Blair, who met Ronnie at the hospital a few weeks after the March 18, 2018, crime.
Ronnie originally was not expected to live.
The then 8-year-old boy, who was recovering after his father stabbed and burned him, asked Blair to stay and watch a movie with him.
Blair wasn’t able to right away, but he came back to the hospital that night with his wife, Danielle. She says she knew instantly that she wanted to bring Ronnie home.
“That’s when a new chapter started for both Ronnie and the Blair family,” the sheriff’s office posted Tuesday on its Facebook page along with a video.
A few months later, Ronnie became the Blairs’ son when they adopted him.
On Friday, Ronnie’s biological father, Ronnie Oneal III, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the slayings of Kenyatta Barron and their young special-needs daughter Ron’niveya, 9, who was nonverbal but would communicate with her brother via sign language.
Oneal, now 32, shot and beat Barron to death and used a hatchet to kill Ron’niveya, who had autism and cerebral palsy, according to trial testimony.
“This is the worst case I have ever seen,” Judge Michelle Sisco said. “I know I will be haunted for the rest of my life.”
However, Blair says, Ronnie “doesn’t want to be defined by that story.”
Ronnie is grateful for his new home and family. “There’s no one else that’s better than them,” he says.
He says despite the trauma, he also still has good memories of his sister and of the mother he lost.
“She was nice, pushed me on a swing, made me some good wings, made me all type of food,” he said. “She was just a good mom.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.