A woman was arrested Monday after she allegedly beat her 6-year-old daughter with a belt and dragged her across the floor by her hair.
Shanice Williams, 24, is charged with battery. The same crime committed against another adult would have likely been a misdemeanor, but because the victim in this case is a child, the charge is a felony, Bloomington Police Department Capt. Steve Kellams said.
Police were called at about 11:10 a.m. to Williams’ apartment on the 100 block of East Varsity Lane. Williams’s husband told police he had woken up to yelling and crying noises. When he investigated, he found his wife striking their daughter several times with a belt, he told police.
When he tried to interfere, Williams grabbed the girl by the hair and dragged her across the floor, Kellams said the man told police. As she dragged her through a doorway, the girl slammed into the door frame.Williams then began throwing the girl’s toys in a dumpster outside, Kellams said. Officers who arrived at the scene noticed broken toys by the dumpster. Williams’s husband also told police she hit the girl in the head with a television remote control.
Williams told police she had been working hard to pay bills and was stressed out, and she became angry when the girl urinated in the bathtub. She admitted to hitting the girl with a belt and dragging her across the floor though she said she dragged the girl by the robe she was wearing, not by her hair, Williams said. She denied hitting her with the TV remote.
The police report did not note whether the girl had received any medical treatment. Department of Child Services agents were also at the scene. Williams was arrested and taken to Monroe County Correctional Center.
Jack Evans
