12 months ago
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. -- "I would be horrified. I don't know what I would do, but I would be terrified."
That's how Stephanie Russell says she'd probably react if a stranger were to slap one of her 4 young children.
Like other moms shopping at the Stone Mountain Wal-Mart on Wednesday, Russell was stunned to hear that a man is accused of doing just that at the same store Monday morning.
Gwinnett County Police said 61-year-old Roger P. Stephens admitting slapping a complete stranger's child because it was crying.
According to the police report, Sonya Mathews of Grayson told them Stephens approached her and her 2-year-old daughter saying, "If you don't shut that baby up, I will shut her up for you."
She says a few moments later, on another aisle, he grabbed her daughter and slapped her across the face about four or five times until the child started screaming.
"Through testimony of the mother and also possible marks on the child, it was determined that there was enough probable cause to arrest the gentleman," Gwinnett County Police Cpl. David Schiralli told 11Alive News.
A customer apparently helped hold Stephens in the store until police arrived.
Police say Wal-Mart security cameras did not record the incident.
The arresting officer wrote that Stephens admitted slapping the child, but said he apologized to the mother.
Wednesday morning a magistrate judge ordered Stephens held in jail without bond on a felony child cruelty charge.
11Alive News did a criminal background check on Stephens and found only one previous brush with the law.
He was convicted of DUI in Gwinnett County in 1999 and served one year on probation.
Gwinnett County Police say they haven't found anything else in Stephens' background that might help explain the attack.
