An Oxford man was arrested for child abuse after allegedly slapping a young girl on the side of the head at a park.
Deputies received a call for service from the Department of Children and Families on the evening of April 13, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. A witness reported seeing 38-year-old Adam Christian Williams slap a juvenile girl on the side of her head the day before at Lake Okahumpka Park.
The witness told law enforcement that Williams was walking the juvenile victim to the bathrooms, about 50 feet from the picnic tables. She accidentally walked in front of him and almost caused him to fall. He then struck her on the right side of her head over her ear, which made her cry. The witness heard the slap clearly from 25 feet away, the report said.
A deputy subsequently responded to Williams’s residence in Oxford on Monday afternoon, when he was arrested on charge of abuse child without great bodily harm. He was booked at the Sumter County detention Center without bond.