LAFAYETTE, IN — An 8-year-old heard a “loud banging noise” in a bedroom of his family’s Acorn Acres apartment Sunday afternoon and kicked the locked door until it broke open, according to prosecutors.
When the door opened, the child saw Desmond Allen Scott with his hands wrapped around a woman’s neck and choking her inside an apartment on Denham Court, according to a probable cause affidavit. The child jumped on Scott, 36, of the 1800 block of Shenandoah Court in Lafayette, and tried to stop the attack. Scott shoved the 8-year-old to the ground but released his grip on the woman.
Police noticed bruising on the woman’s neck, the court document said. Initially, the victim told police that nothing physical happened and that they had just been arguing. But she later told police he had thrown her up against a wall, punched her and that she couldn’t breathe when his hands were around her neck. According to the court document, he had been angry that she had not made him lunch.
Prosecutors charged Scott on Monday with domestic battery with bodily injury to a person younger than 14, domestic battery on a person younger than 14, strangulation, criminal confinement and two counts of domestic battery.
He remained incarcerated Monday afternoon at the Tippecanoe County Jail.
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Prosecutors: 8-year-old stops domestic violence attack
Reporting by Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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By Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier | USA TODAY Network
