A gentleman who lives in Deltona heard his adult neighbors — a man and a woman, who have two children together — yelling at each other in their front yard the night of Nov. 3. And the children were crying and screaming.
The neighbor saw the father put his arm around the mother’s neck from behind and try to pull her to the ground (which is definitely not an affectionate embrace).
Neighbor shouted at Violent Father to get off Put-Upon Mother, which Violent Father did. Neighbor went into his own house, picked up his cellphone and called the Sheriff’s Office.
When a deputy arrived, Put-Upon Mother gave the lawman her version of what had happened. She said she was in the front yard smoking a cigarette, and Violent Father was inside the house with the kids.
Violent Father went outside “and began arguing with [Put-Upon Mother] about a missing key fob for [her] multiple times before striking her with a closed fist on her upper body.” his vehicle.” He “pushed Violent Father went into the couple’s house but then re-emerged and “pushed [Put-Upon Mother], causing her to fall on the concrete walkway, striking her forehead.” She tried to crawl away backward “while [Violent Father] attempted to grab her.”
She stood up, and Violent Father put his arm around her neck and tried to return her to the ground. It was then that Neighbor shouted to him to get off Put-Upon Mother.
When Violent Father gave his account of the events of the night, he said while he and Put- Upon Mother were in his vehicle, he accused her of taking his missing key fob. He said Put-Upon Mother “became aggressive and struck [Violent Father] in his head multiple times with her cell phone.” And he said she also scratched his neck.
Interestingly, the deputy “did not observe any cuts, bruises, or abrasions on [Violent Father’s] head, face, neck, or arms to correlate [to] his statements,” although the deputy “observed very minor cuts on the tip of [Violent Father’s] nose.”
The deputy “observed [Violent Father] to be impaired and possibly under the influence of narcotics due to his slow speech and drooling on himself.”
The deputy saw that Put- Upon Mother’s neck was red and that there was “a small abrasion/lump on the center of her forehead.”
Violent Father was deemed the primary aggressor, and he was arrested on a charge of simple battery.
While the deputy investigated the couple’s criminal history, he learned that Put-Upon Mother “had an active warrant out of Volusia County.” Therefore, she, too, was later taken into custody.
So the couple’s two kids spent a night or more in their paternal grandmother’s custody. It would be interesting to know how she explained to them why grown-ups sometimes get into loud, violent arguments about dumb things (like kids sometimes do).
— By Keith Allen, based on local police-agency reports. If you have information about a crime, call Crime Stoppers, 1-888-277- TIPS. You could be eligible for a reward.
