A five-year-old girl has died after her father allegedly threw her off a Florida bridge. The man, age 25, has been charged with first degree murder of his daughter. The suspect is alleged to have stopped on a Florida bridge, taken his daughter from the car and thrown her into the water below. The child's body was found an hour and a half later.

The Washington Post reports that a St. Petersburg police officer spotted a car speeding sometime after midnight on Thursday morning and subsequently attempted to pull the car over. The officer said the car then stopped at the bridge, where the driver exited the vehicle and took a child from the car, St. Petersburg police Chief Anthony Holloway said at a press conference.

Holloway told reports the man threw the child off the bridge and then drove off.

“The suspect drove off,” Holloway said. “He just drove off.”

Teh accused was then pursued by two officers on the opposite side of the bridge. Officer eventually resorted to using spikes to stop the car, some 30 minutes later. The man was charged with murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a law enforcement officer, and aggravated fleeing and eluding police.

The AP reports that the father had custody of the child and had recently attempted to file a domestic violence claim against her mother. The claim was not granted.

St Petersburg Police spokesperson Yolanda Fernande said the crime is, “unfathomable”.

“Officers see all kinds of things but it’s still very difficult to see something like this unfold before your eyes,” she told Florida TV station WFLA.

“What could make someone throw someone over a railing let alone your own child? How could you possibly understand that?”

Authorities found the child roughly one mile from the bridge but attempts to revive her were unsuccessful.