A Georgia father has been arrested after he was filmed allegedly beating a sobbing toddler in a Kroger parking lot.
Footage posted online shows the suspect – identified as 44 year old James Collins – repeatedly yelling at a three-year-old boy inside his white GMC truck to ‘shut up’ and ‘get in the damn car’ as the toddler could be heard crying.
He then slaps the boy at least three times, as he yells, ‘I said shut up.’
The father then starts berating the child for apparently peeing on himself.
‘Stop pottying on yourself,’ he yells. ‘You better potty at school.’
Georgia father James Collins, 44, has been arrested after he was filmed allegedly beating his sobbing three-year-old son
At that point, a woman could be seen stopping and staring at the man.
‘You gotta problem?’ he confronts her. ‘Mind your damn business, woman.’
‘I raise my damn child the way I want to,’ Collins continues, as the unidentified woman tries to speak up.
He continues to yell at the woman as she walks by while he is loading his groceries into the truck, and tells her to ‘get the f*** out of my damn face.’
The man who originally uploaded the video, TikTok user _ainabainab, said the alleged assault occurred on August 7 at the Kroger in Lilburn, Georgia at around 4.14pm.
‘I dialed 911 immediately after the fact and gave them his plate number and the direction he was traveling in, so they are aware of this incident,’ he wrote on Reddit.
‘What’s pissing me off is that there seems to be no sense of urgency on their part,’ he continued. ‘They’re only “looking out” for the vehicle, not actively searching for it. They didn’t even ask me for a description of the man.
‘Let’s all work together to get this man in prison where he belongs for the sake of this little boy,’ the videographer urged.
Eventually, an unidentified woman stops and stares at the man
She tries to confront him, but Collins tells her to ‘mind your own business’ and ‘get the f*** out of my damn face’
Many on Reddit praised the woman who came forward, and offered the uploader advice on how to find the father.
‘That lady is a real one,’ one Redditor wrote. ‘Anyone who put themselves in harms way to defend a child that isn’t even theirs deserves all the good life has to offer.’
Others also expressed their concerns for the child’s wellbeing.
‘That poor child is receiving permanent emotional damage,’ another user commented, while a third suggested his ‘life at home must be horrific.
‘These “parents” don’t realize the long-lasting consequences of their actions,’ the Reddit user wrote. ‘Truly, you should have to pass a test to be a parent.’
A fourth Redditor called it is ‘one of life’s cruel jokes that there are people who really REALLY want a child and can’t have one.
‘Meanwhile, this f***** s***bag exists.’
Collins is now charged with first-degree cruelty to children, and is being held at the Gwinnett County Jail on a $4,600 bond
Lilburn Police Chief Chris Dusik has since said the incident did not occur within city limits, and its officers therefore did not respond and are not investigating, according to WSB-TV.
But the Gwinnett County Police Department said they received several messages and comments about the video, which has been shared several thousand times since it was uploaded to Reddit on Friday, so they decided to open an investigation.
Officers then received surveillance footage from the supermarket, and were able to confirm the incident.
Police say the boy suffered minor injuries and is now being cared for by family members. The Department of Family and Child Services was also notified, officers said.
Collins is now charged with first-degree cruelty to children, and is being held at the Gwinnett County Jail on a $4,600 bond.
Investigators have said they cannot release any more details about the video out of fear they could compromise the ongoing investigation.