Police arrested three people Sunday, after a video was posted on a social networking site showing them beating up an 11-year-old boy.
The six-minute-long video shows the child's mother, godmother and her boyfriend continuously slapping and whacking him with a belt at least 50 times. The video posted on Facebook went viral and was shared over 9,000 times. The child was beaten up in front of an infant for posting false information on his Facebook page. The abusers make the boy tell his name and age at the end of video. The incident happened April 3 in a neighborhood of eastern Flint, Michigan.
"Near the end of the video, the child was in obvious pain and he was squirming while being struck and still forced to hold onto the arms of the chair," the Genesee County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement, reports Opposing Views.
Authorities said that they learnt about the video Friday and arrested the three people Sunday, reports MINBC News. The Genesee County prosecutor's office said that Demitria Powell, 28-year-old mother of the boy, Uteas Taylor, 42, and Stefon Felton, 39, were charged with third degree child abuse, conspiracy to commit child abuse and child abuse committed in the presence of another child. The child along with the infant has been kept in to protective custody.
"Officers went to that location with Child Protective Services and made the two arrests," said Collin Birnie of the Flint police department.
All three were arraigned Tuesday morning. "The law says that you can administer reasonable physical force upon a child for disciplinary purposes. I think this was unreasonable," Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said of the child's beating. He said the video disturbed him.
Court set a bond of $7,500 for Powell and $8,500 for Taylor and Felton. The Flint Police Department requested people on their official Facebook page to refrain from circulating the video.
