A Georgia woman has been arrested and charged with first-degree cruelty to children on Wednesday after a video of her striking her daughter in the face then dragging her by her hair surfaced online.
According to a witness who spoke to WGXA, Samrria Mona White, 27, had children playing at her pool when she grew agitated and demanded that everyone go home. The witness said shortly after throwing everyone out, she saw White chasing her daughter.
“In the shocking video, which was also posted to social media, the woman is seen striking the child in the face several times,” the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office wrote on in a statement.
The video then shows White dragging her daughter through the grass by her hair as she wailed in pain.
The Sheriff’s Office says White initially repudiated the claims but when she was informed the incident was caught on camera, she confessed. She was taken into custody shortly thereafter.
White’s daughter had redness on her chest that started to bruise when she arrived at a local hospital where she was taken to treat injuries.
White is currently being held on $2,000 bond at the Bibb County Jail. Detectives say DFCS has been alerted about the incident.
The news comes on the heels of A Florida woman who was arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child after she left her infant in a hot car to attend church.
Officers responded to a call at the Mount of Olives Evangelical Church, located 6165 Babcock Street in Palm Bay after it was discovered that an 11-month-old child was unresponsive in a car.
Upon arrival, it was found that the infant had been left in the vehicle for roughly three hours while the parents went to a church nearby.
Detectives later found that the child’s mother, Bulaine Molme, was late to arrive to the service she was scheduled to officiate. She told authorities she thought her child was brought inside the place of worship by a member of the church.
When church service was over, Molme realized that her child was not inside the church. She then rushed to her vehicle and found her child unresponsive. She then called the police who performed CPR until rescue personnel arrived.
The child was then rushed to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Molme was arrested and charged shortly thereafter. The child’s father, who was also in the church at the time of the incident, has not been named as a suspect at the time of this writing.
According to data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), “51 States reported a total of 1,809 fatalities due to child neglect or abuse.
Furthermore, “child fatalities in 2019 involved children younger than three years, and children younger than one year accounted for 45.4 percent of all fatalities. Young children are the most vulnerable for many reasons, including their dependency, small size, and inability to defend themselves.”
To learn more about child abuse and neglect, prevention tools and other ways to help, visit the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) here.
