A Tennessee father was arrested for aggressively spanking and kicking his son after his ex-wife caught him on video.
Nia Snow, the 6-year-old’s mother, told Fox 17 the boy’s father Randy Dickens started out by spanking son Damien for bad behavior in school and got carried away.This isn’t the first time the mom witnessed one of her children suffering at the hands of one of her partners. She told the station:
“It’s the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
However, the abuse survivor wanted proof before reporting her ex to authorities. According to Snow, Dickens legally carries a handgun and she didn’t want to put anyone at risk.
Instead, she recorded the father beating the boy for misbehaving. Snow said:
“The whole time it was happening, he was screaming my name.”
She wanted to step in and stop the abuse, but was afraid to confront Dickens in the moment.
The punishment continued inside a playroom after he tried to run away. Snow said:
“Damien ran in there to hide underneath his pillow, and Randy comes in and smacks him again in the face and kicks him again.”
While Dickens was brutally kicking the 6-year-old in his abdomen, Snow slipped away to secretly call 911.
The mother then asked Dickens to go get groceries. She wanted him to leave so he wouldn’t destroy the video before she could show police. She explained:
“I tried to do things the right way.
I did what the police told me to do, and I didn’t want nobody getting shot, and I knew that’s what would’ve happened, so I tried to be smart.”
When Damien was two, he suffered 18 fractured bones from one his mother’s ex-boyfriends, who is still behind bars. Snow said:
“It does something to your kids, whether you see it or not, and you might feel it, but you have to do something about it, because it affects them, and something like this will end up happening.”
Dickens turned himself in to authorities Monday morning. He was charged with child abuse and neglect. He was later released on bond.