BAKERSFIELD, CA — A man in California is charged with child endangerment after surveillance video shows him punching a boy in the face.
The man, 23-year-old Justin Whittington, is the boy’s father. The video shows the child running inside a supermarket in Bakersfield. Whittington punches the child and he falls to the floor crying.
The child is eventually seen leaving the store led by a woman who appears to be his pregnant mother.
“That was horrible, man. The worst thing I’ve ever seen,” store owner Harry Drindal told The Daily News. An employee witnessed the savage act of child abuse and told Drindal to watch the surveillance video.
Whittington was arrested Friday morning and is being held on $1 million bail. According to The Daily News, the child was not seriously injured.
“You don’t hit a child like that,” Drindal told the news.
