Chris Lange, FISM News
Florida detective Mike Blair of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office was one of the first officers to respond to a frantic 911 call from a woman pleading for help as her boyfriend, Ronnie Oneal, brutally attacked her and the couple’s two children. When Blair arrived on scene, Kenyatta Barron and her 9-year-old special needs daughter, Ron’niveya, were dead. The couple’s 8-year-old son, also named Ronnie, was transported to Tampa General Hospital with critical stab wounds and severe burns, according to the Independent.
Ronnie Oneal was later convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder in connection with the horrific attack.
“We were told there was a child being medevacked to Tampa General, but he was not expected to live,” Blair said in a video shared by the sheriff’s office.
The detective subsequently learned that the young boy had pulled through and decided to pay him a visit at the hospital a few weeks later. It was a decision that would have a profound impact on both of their lives.
Blair brought Ronnie some Tampa Bay Buccaneers gifts and spent time speaking with the little boy who had been through so much. Toward the end of their interaction, Ronnie had a special request for the detective.
“He kind of held onto my hand as I left, and he said, ‘Could you watch a movie with me?’” Blair recounted. “I said, ‘No, I can’t. I gotta get back to work…How about I come back and watch a movie with you tonight?'”
Blair phoned his wife, Danyel, with whom he’d made plans to go out to dinner that evening and asked if the two of them could instead watch a movie with the boy. Danyel didn’t hesitate to say “yes.” When the couple joined Ronnie in his hospital room, Danyel experienced a sudden conviction.
“I had already known that I would want to take Ronnie home with us, starting that night,” she said. Things, however, were not quite so simple. A court-appointed guardian ad litem assigned to supervise Ronnie’s care had been making arrangements on his behalf, and it was determined that the boy would be placed in the care of other family members. The arrangement, however, was eventually deemed unsuitable as a result of unspecified problems in the home.
Blair recalls the occasion in which he met the guardian at the hospital.
“I kind of did the polite, ‘if he ever needs anything, give me a call,’” he recalls. Little did he know at the time that a call would, in fact, come.
“When I got the phone call, I was driving, and I was driving by our church and the guardian was asking, ‘Do you know of somebody who can help us out,’” said Blair.
According to Danyel, that phone call was an answer to prayer.
“I had already started praying that God would soften Michael’s heart and say, ‘OK, yes, we have a place and Ronnie belongs home with us,’” she explained. The couple already had six children of their own – all of whom encouraged their father to bring young Ronnie into their family.
“My kids had come to me at one point in this period of time and said to me, ‘Dad, you just need to go with Mom on this; we need to start fostering,’” Blair said.
Five months later, when the time came to find an adoptive home for Ronnie, The Blairs volunteered.
Today, Ronnie, now 12, is a permanent and beloved member of the Blair family.
“They are really nice people. They are the best moms and dads, and they really take care of me. There is no one else better than them,” Ronnie said.
Surrounded by the love and acceptance of his adoptive family, Ronnie, now healthy and strong, is gradually healing from the memories of the tragic night that forever changed his life.
“He knows he has a story that has been written for him,” Blair said of his son. “He also knows he doesn’t want to be defined by that story.”
Ronnie openly shares fond memories of his birth mother.
“She was just a good mom. We did, like, a lot of things together. She was nice, pushed me on the swing, made me some good wings,” said Ronnie.
Today, Blair sees the providential hand of the Lord in all of the events that have taken place since the night he was dispatched to that tragic scene.
“The easiest way to surmise the whole, this is – it’s been a God thing for us,” he said.