SAN ANGELO, Texas — A Texas man was arrested Thursday after allegedly tying a child to a garage door with a dog leash and beating him with a hammer.
According to the San Angelo Standard-Times, a sheriff’s deputy was called to a home in San Angelo, Texas for a complaint of child abuse.
A woman told authorities her 6-year-old son had bruises on his body but wouldn’t tell her how he got his injuries.
The bruising was consistent with blunt force trauma, the deputy wrote in a report obtained by the newspaper.
The child reportedly told the deputy a relative had “tied him to a door with a dog leash” before walking away to go to the store. The boy added that he “could not breathe because the leash was tight.”
A witness told investigators that she had previously seen the child’s father hit him on the leg with a hammer.
On Thursday, deputies arrested Ronnie Shane Winans, 25, on suspicion of injuring a child with intent to commit bodily injury.
Authorities say they found a hammer that’s rubber handle was “consistent with the size and shape” of the bruises on the child’s legs while searching his home.
Winans reportedly told deputies during an interview that he tied the child to the door using a dog leash “in an attempt to keep him from leaving the corner.”
He denied causing the bruising on the child’s legs, but reportedly admitted to having thrown hangers at the boy in the past as “an attempt to get his attention, and not as punishment.”
He was released on $15,000 bond Friday.
If found guilty on third-degree felony charges of charges of injury to a child, elderly, or disabled person with intent to cause injury, Winans could spend up to 10 years in prison and face a possible fine of up to $10,000.
