AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – An Augusta woman was arrested Tuesday after surveillance video showed her stepping on a child at Circle City ABA on Wheeler Road, according to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.

Aaniyah Brown, of Augusta, was charged with cruelty to children in the first degree.

Deputies were dispatched to the location at 1:23 p.m. Tuesday in reference to cruelty to children. A complainant told deputies Brown assaulted a juvenile.

The complainant said the incident occurred at 11:31 a.m. and was brought to her attention. She said she consulted the security video system and observed Brown push the child away with her foot twice, then held the child down by stepping on his lower back, officials say.

The complainant said as the child was trying to get up, Brown placed a foot on his face and pushed him away, according to the incident report.

Authorities say deputies watched the video and saw the events as described.

According to the incident report, Brown said she was only using her foot to keep the child from harming her.

Brown was then arrested at around 4:20 p.m. and transported to the Richmond County Jail, officials say.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Wellstar MCG is launching a new mobile market this week through a partnership with Golden Harvest and Augusta Locally Grown.

The market aims to give families access to healthy food options. People will receive shelf-stable food boxes from Golden Harvest, while Augusta Locally Grown provides fresh fruits and vegetables. Wellstar provides health education services.

“Wellstar approached us and asked if we would be interested in partnering with them and Golden Harvest to do a food distribution here in the Harrisburg or in the downtown area,” said Diane Kerekanich, operations director for Augusta Locally Grown. “And they felt that this was a really good location because we do have a lot of residents here, and this is considered a food swamp.”

The market is funded with a $50,000 grant to the Wellstar Foundation.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Auditors say they can’t fully verify how millions in federal pandemic dollars sent to Augusta were spent.

City leaders have approved an Office of Inspector General investigation into the Housing and Community Development Department.

Augusta’s housing department received about $26 million in emergency rental assistance funds during the pandemic.

Auditors verified roughly $13.3 million was spent properly, most of it through payments to United Way. About $6.2 million was returned to the federal government because it went unused.

But auditors could not confirm how $6.8 million was used.

Audit reveals mismanagement

Auditors said money was mixed with other accounts, transactions were recorded inconsistently, and there was not a clear paper trail to track where specific dollars went.

Auditors said that made it difficult to know how the money was spent.

Emails obtained show City Administrator Tameka Allen asked auditors whether this was mismanagement and whether federal money was used for other expenses.

Auditors responded their findings pointed to mismanagement but said determining criminal wrongdoing was outside their role.

“It kind of felt like a hit in the stomach because our goal is to find out what is truly happening,” Allen said. “And unfortunately, they could not even provide us that information based on their expertise in the auditing field. So it goes to show that there’s a lot for us to do, a lot of things for us to correct.”

City leaders approved two outside groups to help them get back on track with their finances. Commissioners approved $32,500 a month for CKH Consulting Services to help with the finance department and $8,750 a month for BluLynx Solutions to help with Housing and Community Development.

Commissioners also voted to bring in the Office of Inspector General to look into the Housing and Community Development Department.

“The thing that I would like to stress to the community is that the governing body is being proactive and trying to make sure they do everything within the legal realms to come up with a solution as to what is actually going on in our Housing Community Development and what is necessary to actually earn the trust back from our constituents,” Allen said.