A 9-year-old girl is recovering after a freak stabbing in Brevard County, which police say was an accident.
"It's like a Catch 22, trying to do the right thing for one, and the little one gets in there anyway," said neighbor Howie Myrick.
Myrick lives in the Rockledge Villas community off Fiske Boulevard.
He was home Tuesday night when emergency vehicles converged on the complex.
"Hey, what's going on? Everybody came out of their houses, we are all looking up and down," Myrick said.
Police said the girl's 7-year-old brother had gotten hold of a kitchen-type knife with a jagged blade.
"Unbeknownst to her, her dad had interrupted some horseplay that her younger brother was partaking in," said Chief Joseph LaSata of the Rockledge Police Department.
The children's father saw the knife and took it away from his son. He then put it in his back pocket.
"The victim did not see that, and she came out to greet her father, she jumped on his back, and was impaled by the knife," said Chief LaSata.
Police said the knife stuck her in the abdomen.
Emergency workers arrived and stabilized the child. She was then airlifted to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando.
Myrick said he knows the family and sees them playing around the pool and when they visit the library where he works.
He said the man is a good father who would never intentionally put his children in danger.
"I can't see him hurting the kids. You can tell he really cares for them," Myrick said.
Rockledge Police said the child is still recovering in the hospital.
Detectives are still investigating, but said it doesn't look like any criminal charges will be filed.