A Florida father was arrested on Monday after allegedly beating his son and throwing him at a wall over purchases the child made on an iPad.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said that 33-year-old Andrew Atkerson was taken to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility after he was arrested and charged for allegedly injuring his 9-year-old son.
The arrest comes a few weeks after the alleged incident occurred on February 3, the sheriff’s office said.
“Currently on probation for a felony battery arrest involving the child’s mother in 2017, Atkerson would target his son in a February 3 attack at the father’s Palm Coast home,” the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
According to police, on February 3, Atkerson’s 9-year-old son used an iPad to make several purchases while using an application. Police did not say how much money was spent on the purchases.
After learning of the in-app purchases made by the boy, police said Atkerson allegedly attacked his son, picking him up several times and threw him “into the walls, closets and other items in the home,” police said. The 9-year-old boy reportedly sustained bruising across numerous parts of his body from the attack, police said.
The sheriff’s office said that the 9-year-old boy’s mother noticed her son’s injuries when she picked him up from school after the alleged attack.
According to the sheriff’s office, Atkerson was interviewed by officials with the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) Child Protection Team. During the interview, Atkerson allegedly said, “I might have over punished them a little bit,” the sheriff’s office said.
Atkerson was arrested and charged with felony child abuse, according to the sheriff’s office. He is currently in custody on a $12,500 bond.
“No child should ever have to endure what this man did to his child. It appears this man has no ability to control his rage,” Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said in a statement. “Parents have the right to discipline their children but cannot go overboard, which happened in this case. A more appropriate discipline would have been to restrict access to the iPad or make them do chores around the house to pay for the items they ordered, not beat their child. I’m thankful the mother reported her observations and the work our detectives and DCF have done on this case to protect the children.”
Newsweek was directed to the press release after reaching out to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office for comment.
A somewhat similar incident recently occurred in Nebraska, when a couple was arrested after the father was accused of throwing his infant daughter at a crib because the child was distracting him from playing video games.
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