A US Army sergeant was arrested earlier this month after he was seen on a doorbell video beating a 3-year-old boy.
Paul Thames, 29, was charged with injury to a child after the video began circulating on social media, KWTX reported.
Thames was seen on the video, recording by a neighbor’s doorbell camera, picking up the toddler by the neck and viciously beating him on the back, his arrest warrant says. Thames punched the boy in the back several times using “excessive force,” the warrant says. He also “picked up the victim by the back of his neck and placed his hands over the victim’s mouth.”
As the child cries in pain, Thames demands, “Are you going to stop playing?”
Waco Police brought Thames in for questioning, and he told detectives he beat the boy because he didn’t want to work on his ABCs. He said he took the toddler outside for the “discipline” while the boy’s mother was working inside the apartment. He said he did not tell her he beat her son.
The warrant says that Thames “admitted to going overboard and understood that what he did was not right” and apologized to the toddler.
“The only reason this offense was known to have occurred was based on the video provided,” the warrant says.
The toddler was treated and released at a Waco hospital for pain in his neck.
The victim was treated at a Waco hospital due to pain on his neck, according to the warrant. Police say he was seen by medical personnel and released.
The 1st Cavalry Division of the US Army said that Thames is stationed at Fort Hood, formerly Fort Cavazos.
“We are aware of the arrest of Sgt. Paul Thames for abuse of a child,” a division spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The 1st Cavalry Division is in communication with law enforcement. We are disgusted by the video that has been posted. The behavior of Sgt. Thames does not reflect the values of the 1st Cavalry Division or the U.S. Army.”
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[Featured image: KWTX screenshot. Inset: Paul Thames/McLennan County Sheriff’s Office]
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