Day-care worker slammed baby’s head on a table, police say

October 20, 2016 at 1:10 p.m. EDT

An employee of a day-care center in Upper Marlboro was arrested after allegedly abusing a 3-year-old boy at the center, police said Thursday.

On Oct. 18 at about 8 a.m., 25-year-old D’Aira Nichel Thompson of Cheltenham was attempting to restrain the boy in a chair when she told him to put his head down and slammed it on a table, Prince George’s County police said in a statement. The boy suffered a contusion to the right side of his head, the statement said.

Charging documents identified the day-care center as Antioch Child Care Center in the 5000 block of Brown Station Road, and said the incident was witnessed by the parent of another child at the center and recorded on video. Antioch did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Thompson was arrested and charged with second-degree child abuse and second-degree assault, police said.

A Maryland department of education spokesman said that the church-run center is private and appropriately licensed, and that licensing specialists had visited Thursday with child protective services staff to investigate further.

Police have asked anyone with information about the case to contact them at 301-772-4930 or send a tip to princegeorgescountymd.gov.