LEWISVILLE — It's an unimaginable sight neighbors now can't get out of their heads: a father slamming his toddler son to the sidewalk and stabbing him repeatedly.

Sunday afternoon's attack on a 16-month-old ended only after one neighbor grabbed his gun and fired three times from his second-floor apartment, wounding the man.

But for the little boy, clad only in a diaper, the heroics came too late. Ashton Ness was dead.

Police aren't releasing the name of the boy's father or the hospital where he was being treated. He was in surgery Monday afternoon and wasn't expected to be transferred to jail until Tuesday at the earliest, Lewisville Police Capt. Mike Lane said.

"We don't want to release his name because right now he's guarded by police officers, but it's not a real secure facility," Lane said.

He was being treated for a gunshot wound to the leg as well as significant injuries to his hand, likely caused by a knife used in the attack, Lane said. Toxicology tests are also pending.

The Tarrant County medical examiner's office posted the boy's name in its online reports Monday but later removed the information from its site.

The sprawling Oak Forest Apartments complex where the attack occurred, along State Highway 121 Business just west of Interstate 35E, is the sort of place where neighbors may not know each other's names but wave and make small talk as they come and go.

On Monday, though, reeling from tragedy, they shared names — even a few hugs and tears — as they mourned the towheaded boy they never knew.

Loretta McDougal was smoking on her second-floor balcony Sunday afternoon when her downstairs neighbor, Ashton's father, came out of his apartment. She said the man was ranting and raving as he turned the corner of the building and came into view.

She couldn't tell what he was shouting about and suspected that he might be drunk. The toddler in his arms wasn't moving, she said. At first she thought it was a doll.

"He raised his arms up high, and he threw that baby on the concrete," McDougal said.

The sound of it still makes her shudder.

Then she saw several knives and a pair of scissors come out. She said he knelt beside his son and started stabbing him in the abdomen.

"He had the wildest look on his face," McDougal said. "He wasn't all there."

Lewisville police officers clean bloodstains from the pavement at Oak Forest Apartments in Lewisville, Texas on Aug. 19, 2018. A man is accused of fatally stabbing and beating his 16-month-old son before a neighbor at his Lewisville apartment complex attempted to stop the attack by shooting him in the leg, police said Sunday. (Carly Geraci / Staff Photographer)

McDougal leaped to her feet and started hollering, trying to alert anyone who could help. She threw a mini recycling bin at the father to try to divert his attention, but she said the stabbing continued. Police later labeled the bin with evidence tag No. 11.

At the far end of the courtyard, James Ellis was headed to a friend's place when he heard the father shouting for people to come outside and look. Ellis said he saw the toddler "slammed to the concrete like a bag of trash."

He immediately dialed 911. It was 12:40 p.m.

Less than 24 hours later, Ellis struggled to remember what he told the dispatcher. He couldn't answer her questions.

"It was hard for me to watch it," he said of the stabbing. "It didn't even look real."

When the shooting started, Ellis ran in the opposite direction.

On Monday, the good Samaritan shooter recounted Sunday's attack to a neighbor. He said he opened his window when he heard the commotion and saw the father stab the boy twice. That's when the neighbor went out on the balcony with his gun.

The man, identified by WFAA-TV (Channel 8) as Andrew Austin, said the father stepped away but then headed back toward his son.

"I told him to stop, and he just kept walking," the shooter said. "That's why I had to do something."

Eduardo Carranza said that when he heard the gunfire, he rushed out of his apartment. He immediately saw the wounded father yelling at the shooter to kill him.

"Shoot me, come on, hit me," the father shouted, according to Carranza.

Anthony King also heard it: "Shoot me again. Kill me."

"Then he threw out some God Scriptures," King added.

But the shooter held his fire. Lewisville police said the man will not face criminal charges.

Neighbors hailed him as a hero.

"I'm glad he stepped in and done what he done," Ellis said. "I'm real thankful."

A makeshift memorial for Ashton started with a tan teddy bear in the courtyard where he was stabbed. A paper heart pinned to the bear read: "R.I.P. Lil One." Ellis and his girlfriend added flowers and a black teddy bear. Someone else added a tiny toy truck.

Hearing about the boy's stabbing is tragic enough, Ellis said. "But to actually see it? I don't see how anybody could see that done and not cry."

His girlfriend, Jolyn Zapatos, described what she saw Sunday as terrifying.

"The little boy we don't know touched us," she said.

Lewisville police arrived moments after the shooting. Officers scooped up the toddler lying motionless on the sidewalk and hurried away. Others focused on the father, who was agitated and "talking nonsense," Carranza said.

Police used their Tasers to subdue the father, several witnesses said. Carranza filmed the scene as police dragged away the father, still screaming. "I just want to see my mom," the father can be heard saying on the video.

Carranza only noticed the blood as investigators logged evidence and photographed the scene. It tracked from the father's apartment door to the spot on the sidewalk where the stabbing occurred. It's unclear whose blood it was.

Police said the boy's mother was at work when the father attacked their son.

1 / 5Detail of a religious card in the patio area of the apartment belonging to a man that is accused of fatally stabbing his 16-month-old son at Oak Forest Apartments. (Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer) 2 / 5Patio area of the apartment belonging to a man who is accused of stabbing his 16-month-old son at Oak Forest Apartments on South State Highway 121 Business near Bellaire Boulevard in Lewisville on Monday, August 20, 2018. (Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer) 3 / 5Patio area of the apartment belonging to a man who is accused of stabbing his 16-month-old son at Oak Forest Apartments on South State Highway 121 Business near Bellaire Boulevard in Lewisville on Monday, August 20, 2018. (Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer) 4 / 5Lewisville Police Capt. Jesse Hunter walks through a crime scene at Oak Forest Apartments in Lewisville, Texas, on Aug. 19, 2018. A man is accused of stabbing his 16-month-old son on Sunday. (Carly Geraci / Staff Photographer) 5 / 5Lewisville police officers investigate a scene where a man stabbed a toddler on Sunday, August 19, 2018 at Oak Forest Apartments in Lewisville, Texas. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

The porch of the family's ground-floor apartment on Monday was dotted with plants and toys. A green stuffed dog lay upside down. Propped up on a table between a can of Lysol and an ashtray was a printed card that read in part: "Today I am going to take my next step/I will ask, listen and respond to the voice of God/I believe that wherever I am going is better than where I have been."

McDougal, who lived above the family, had Monday off from work. She was supposed to be celebrating. Instead, her 64th birthday will be forever marred by memories of what happened in the courtyard below. The bloodstains were gone Monday. But the images of the deadly attack just below her home were still fresh.

"You never know who your neighbors are," McDougal said.

Staff writer Sara Coello contributed to this report.

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