Melissa Neale, an Orlando, Fla., woman, faces child abuse charges after allegedlyshocking her child with a stun gun because she failed to make oatmeal properly.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by Central Florida News 13, the alleged incident happened June 9 in the apartment of a woman with whom Neale and her two children had been staying.
The woman, whose identity was not revealed, said she witnessed the 34-year-old mother of two touch a stun gun to the child's left knee and saw the child fall to the floor and scream.
According to CBS affiliate WKMG, the witness called authorities Thursday once she discovered a note on the child's dresser that said the child "didn't want to live anymore." The witness told police that she had seen Neale slap her children and drag them by their hair multiple times during the family's three-week stay at her home.
Neale denied that any abuse had occurred and said the stun gun had been off during the incident. Police confiscated the weapon as evidence. According to the police affidavit, the child had "visible marks on left knee cap and a bruise on the inside of [the] left calf." Both children have been placed in the custody of relatives.
Former Sheriff's deputy James Copenhaver told Fox Orlando that the average voltage delivered by a consumer stun gun is enough to immobilize an adult and that the weapons leave telltale signs.
"No matter where you're impacted... it's going to cause obviously a red mark, probably puncture wounds, or a burn mark on the skin," Copenhaver told the station.
Neale is charged with aggravated child abuse with a weapon.
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