A Guyton woman beat her 5-year-old child with her hands, then a mop handle, and attacked a man who intervened with the mop handle, according to the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office.
Then, she tried to run the man over with her vehicle, said Bulloch County Sheriff’s Chief Investigator Capt. Todd Hutchens.
Stacey Lynn Thomas, 31, Barrister Circle, then tried to run over the man with her vehicle, said BCSO chief investigator Capt. Todd Hutchens.
Thomas has been charged with cruelty to children, simple battery, disorderly conduct, aggravated assault, striking a fixed object, DUI (refused test), obstruction and DUI: endangering a child, he said.
Thomas entered a convenience store on Old River Road and Highway 301 North on with her 5-year-old child just before 10 p.m. and for unknown reasons began beating the child, according to sheriff’s incident reports.
Witnesses told responding Deputy Nicholas M. Scripture that Thomas came into the store and “began excessively beating her child,” first by hand and then with the mop handle, Hutchens said.
When one witness tried to stop her, she struck him with the mop handle as well, he said.
Thomas left the store and apparently the man who intervened followed her outside as the store clerk called law enforcement. Thomas got into her car and then tried to run over the man, he said.
Thomas then struck a concrete barrier in the parking lot, and was inside the vehicle when deputies arrived on the scene, he said.
Scripture questioned four witnesses in addition to the clerk and the man who intervened, and then took Thomas into custody, he wrote in reports. Hutchens said Thomas was “highly intoxicated,” and garnered the obstruction charge when she “ had an issue” with a jailer after being transported to the Bulloch County Jail.
Scripture called the Bulloch County Department of Family and Children Services, who turned the child over to an adult guardian, he said.
Other charges against Thomas are pending as investigators await the results of toxicology tests, he said.