Authorities have arrested a man for allegedly assaulting a 6-year-old girl who was walking on a street with her family in Santa Monica Sunday night.
“The suspect involved in the March 10th assault on a minor in Santa Monica has been arrested by LAPD after another incident in Venice and is currently in their custody,” the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) said in a social media post. “SMPD detectives are working with LAPD to present our consolidated cases to the LA County District Attorney, aiming for a swift filing of felony child abuse charges.”
A witness had said she saw a disheveled-looking man at a bus stop hitting the child without warning.
"A man who was sitting on a bench turned and swung and hit my friend's 6-year-old child in the face," said Christina Tullock, a Venice resident. "Then he got up and started screaming, 'You don't know who I am.'"
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
Tullock said the 6-year-old girl and her family were visiting from the East Coast.
"If you can't walk down the street in the daylight as a 6-year-old eating ice cream without getting attacked by a grown man out of his mind for whatever reason, we're broken," said Tullock.
