DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A woman was arrested and charged with using her 6-month-old baby to bludgeon her boyfriend and then throwing the baby to the ground during a fight Monday in Daytona Beach.
Police said they received numerous 911 calls from witnesses who said they saw Tatyana Allen, 18, of Ocoee, swinging the baby “like a bat” during the altercation.
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The incident was reported at 4:20 p.m. and when officers arrived, 20 witnesses gave similar statements, a Volusia County Beach Safety report said.
The witnesses told officers they saw Allen punch her boyfriend, who was not named, several times in the face before swinging the baby at him.
Allen then threw the baby face first into the sand, the report said.
Her boyfriend picked up the baby, and Allen “snatched” him back, witnesses told police.
“As this happened, the baby’s head was not being supported and was ‘dangling,’ according to two sworn witness statements,” the report said.
Allen also hit the baby’s head against the railing of a set of stairs while walking to the boardwalk, officers said.
While witnesses told police that Allen was “extremely rough with the baby,” her boyfriend was “very diligent and careful when trying to attend to his baby after (he was) thrown down in the sand,” the report said.
As the incident was ongoing, Allen called 911, to report that her boyfriend “pushed her several times on the boardwalk after he refused to walk to the restroom with her,” according to a recording of the call.
With the baby crying in the background, the woman told the 911 dispatcher that her boyfriend had been hitting her and was drunk on alcohol and high on marijuana.
When Volusia County Beach Safety officers who responded arrested Allen.
In the recording of the call, the woman had trouble telling the dispatcher exactly where she was and repeatedly said she was behind a building with “ocean” in its name.
“Everything in Daytona is named ‘ocean,’ because there is one,” the dispatcher finally said. “Can you find out, please, where you are?”
A large crowd of witnesses had gathered by the time officers arrived, but Allen’s boyfriend had walked away and police were not able to hear his side of the story, the report said.
Allen denied using the baby as a weapon during the fight and said she did not throw the child down into the sand, the report said.
Allen was arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse and battery.
The 6-month-old boy was taken to the hospital for treatment. He is expected to recover, investigators said.
Allen has been ordered to have no contact with the baby, unless the Florida Department of Children and Families allows contact between the two.
Allen is being held at the Volusia County jail with a $30,000 bond.
Contact Jeff Levkulich for more on this story.