UPDATE: For information on the newly filed charges, click on this Northwest Indiana Times link:
Felony charges are being sought after a 23-year-old Kingsford Heights woman was reportedly seen abusing her 5-year-old daughter at Walmart in LaPorte.
LaPorte Police responded to the store shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014, to investigate a disturbance. They were told that a mother was abusing a small child and several shoppers who witnessed the acts subsequently encountered her.
Police spoke with witnesses, who said they heard the child screaming and saw the mother dragging, pushing, yanking and slapping the child. One witness told police that the mother punched the child in the head and another said the mother pushed the child down and then pushed a cart into her.
When customers tried to intervene, they said the mother started yelling obscenities and told them to mind their own business. She then entered a check-out lane, where she continued to yell obscenities at both the cashier and store patrons, according to the police report.
A store manager asked the woman to step outside with her child so she could calm down. She eventually did so. The mother told police her daughter began to throw a temper tantrum when she was unable to purchase a doll the child wanted. When the child wouldn’t quiet down, the mother told police she swatted the child on the buttocks and tried a second time, but missed and ended up striking her in the head.
Police spoke with the child alone, who said her mother spanked her because she was yelling and screaming. Police observed a store video that reportedly showed the mother pushing the child into the store aisles’ end cap displays as she was dragging the girl through the store.
Potential charges of felony battery and disorderly conduct are being reviewed by the LaPorte County Prosecutor’s Office.