JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A woman was charged with two counts of child abuse after she hit her daughters with a metal broom on Mother's Day, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said.
India Martin, 42, was arrested Sunday afternoon at the Pine Hill Apartments off Edgewood Avenue.
According to the police report, Martin was angry that her daughters bought her only a card.
She reacted by hitting one girl with the metal broom, police said, and when her other daughter tried to intervene, Martin punched her in the mouth and pulled her hair. The report said she then threw both of the girls out of the apartment.
Officers noted welts on the arm of the girl who was hit with the broom. The ages of the two daughters were redacted from the police report.
A neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous, told News4Jax on Thursday that she saw both girls running outside after it happened.
"Her two daughters came up, asking to use the phone. They were upset, crying, saying that their mother had a bad Mother's Day and it was, they looked terrified," the neighbor said. "I would never want my kids to have to go to my neighbor's house or someone else's house because of my actions. That just, it's a hurting feeling as a mother to know they felt like that."
Martin, who works as a teaching assistant at Ed White High School, was released from the Duval County Jail Tuesday after posting $30,000 bond and was released.