AZ - Bloody beating of son inside a Wal-Mart

This is just awful! You can see a pic taken with a cell phone and you can also listen to the 911 calls.

Mom in Mesa abuse case had prior record

A mother arrested in the bloody beating of her son inside a Mesa Wal-Mart earlier this week had a history of child abuse charges stemming back to the 2003 death of another son at the hands of a boyfriend.

Police arrested Tina Lynn Tatum, 29, at the Wal-Mart Supercenter at Stapley Drive and Baseline Road on Sunday after several shoppers watched her repeatedly hit her 10-year-old son in the face and stomach with a closed fist, according to witnesses. The boy is in the care of a family member.

Tatum is on lifetime parole for child abuse because of her role in the death of her 3-month-old son, Anthony Nieves, who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Pedro Peralta, four years ago. Peralta is currently serving two consecutive life sentences.

Police received 911 calls from several witnesses at the store Sunday detailing the boy’s brutal beating. The child was described as having a bloody nose and mouth, according to police reports. Witnesses told police that a woman identified as the boy’s grandmother, Karen Richardson, also hurt the boy by dragging him outside the store by his hair, feet and arms.

Wal-Mart employees were asked to intervene, but witnesses said workers cited store policy. Employees are told to contact authorities rather than get involved, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Weber said Wednesday.

WalMart employees are asked not to intervene.

Okay, so what about the 99% of the person who isn't an employee, but a human being?

That is awful! I wish someone would have stepped in to help the child. Sounds like both mom and grandma leave a lot to be desired, IMO.

GlitchWizard said:

WalMart employees are asked not to intervene.

Okay, so what about the 99% of the person who isn't an employee, but a human being?

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Yeah, really. How come that 911 call comes from a concerned shopper and NOT from a Walmart employee? That's just plain stupid. Stupid. What if this little boy was being kidnapped? Would the child have to wait for a shopper to contact help for them?

jantel74 said:

That is awful! I wish someone would have stepped in to help the child. Sounds like both mom and grandma leave a lot to be desired, IMO.

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I doubt anyone would have received any legal repercussions for punching this woman in the face and grabbing up the child. At least if you grab the child, a code Adam would have been called (on you, but still...) and the doors would have been locked. It's insane that these people would be able to make it to their car before help arrived.

If you listen to the 911 tape, there are customers trying to help... even talking to the grandmother and following them and getting license #'s. The point about Walmart employees NOT helping is that one would assume they have a security guard that could help or that they would even call 911 themselves!

What a horrible story! Jeeze! :furious:

Yep......what about all the people watching not doing anything?

I cannot believe that someone there, watching this didn't do something about it immediately.

xxxxxoooooooooo
mama
:blowkiss: :blowkiss:

GlitchWizard said:

I doubt anyone would have received any legal repercussions for punching this woman in the face and grabbing up the child. At least if you grab the child, a code Adam would have been called (on you, but still...) and the doors would have been locked. It's insane that these people would be able to make it to their car before help arrived.

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EXACTLY! The woman on the 911 call says Walmart wouldn't help...and she describes a 'white' woman who states she is NOT the mother beating and dragging away a 'hispanic' child. You'd think they should have issued a code adam immediately! What if that were our child being kidnapped?

kgeaux said:

Yeah, really. How come that 911 call comes from a concerned shopper and NOT from a Walmart employee? That's just plain stupid. Stupid. What if this little boy was being kidnapped? Would the child have to wait for a shopper to contact help for them?

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I will tell you exactly what would happen if the child were being kidnapped because I was in that situation (sort of.) My daughter was being a typical kid - trying to run around a store very similar to a super wal mart. She was pretty young, and I grabbed her by the overhauls straps in back of her and scooped her up under my arm in what I called the "sack of potatoes" hold. It doesn't hurt them, and all the flailing doesn't kick you - but the kid is safely restrained. ANYWAY, my delightful four year old started yelling like her karate instructor taught her to if she were kidnapped.

"THIS IS NOT MY PARENT!"

She shreiked that over and over - and I actually paid for my watch battery with her flailing around, and went all the way to my car and home without the first person questioning me.

! I was actually upset that no one tried to stop me.

Hmmm, well I just started working at a walmart. I will say that at no time during my training was this type of situation discussed, neither was any type of policy on whether or not we can get involved. I'm sorry but it would be a cold day in he!! before you see me chose to follow company policy instead of protect a child.

ETA: I'm going to ask someone tomorrow evening when I go to work. I'm very curious.

MissieMt said:

Hmmm, well I just started working at a walmart. I will say that at no time during my training was this type of situation discussed, neither was any type of policy on whether or not we can get involved. I'm sorry but it would be a cold day in he!! before you see me chose to follow company policy instead of protect a child.

ETA: I'm going to ask someone tomorrow evening when I go to work. I'm very curious.

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The WalMarts of the world will be safer with people like you in it to set an example.

PS
What would you do to a woman who grabbed up a kid and the kid was screaming "THIS IS NOT MY PARENT!" ... just curious.

Let me get this straight... she is on LIFETIME parole for her other sons death and yet they let her keep this child?????

I get that the BF was convicted in that death but clearly based on this the mother was not some innocent bystander! WTF????
WHY does she get the chance to screw up yet another life?????

This makes me see red I am so angry!

And let me tell you ... I could give a rats *advertiser censored* if the store "policy" was not to intervene I would lose my job and put a stop to it.
All of those people in the store and no one stopped these 2 crazy *advertiser censored*?

This reminds me of the time I was in the Walmart...
In the check out isle with my teenage daughter and in front of us was a women who could only be described as "crackwhore" with her young teenage daughter..
I do not know what exactly set this women off but she went nuts!
I really thought she was going to hit the kid and would not be shocked if she did once outside the store..
The girl said nothing but this women was screaming and swearing and berating her for the whole front half of the store to hear.
Getting up in the poor kids face and SCREAMING how she is going to "*advertiser censored*** knock her teeth down her throat etc etc etc.

The look on my face must have said it all because she turns and starts asking what my problem is.....
As quietly as I could and very calmly I said "my problem is that some people have no right being parents you trailer trash *advertiser censored*. I am very certain you are no stranger to the police or DCF. Would you care to pick on someone your own size?"
She shut the hell up quickly.

My poor daughter was like "OMG!!! I can't believe she treated her daughter like that!!"
The cashier said... "I was so sure she was going to hit that child"

I would have broken her GD hand so flipping fast if she had.
I don't understand how these people in that store all stood around and did nothing.
The mother would have been the one bloodied if I had seen that.
No force on earth would have stopped me from intervening most likely with a solid bat from the sporting goods department.

Just no way I could sit back and watch a child be beaten nor walk away and pretend it was not happening.

What a horrible, horrible story.

Also sounds like a vicious cycle of abuse on the part of both mother and grandmother. :furious: I just hope that whoever they have placed this child with doesn't follow this same cycle of abuse.

Another thing, IMO, this woman shouldn't even have custody of her son if she's on lifetime probation (whatever that is) for the role in another son's death.

My local WM has outside security. I wonder if they would get involved if something like this happened there?

I wouldn't hesitate to get involved if I saw this going on. There is a HUGE difference between disciplining your child and abuse. :furious:

It IS amazing and appalling to me no one stepped up to help that poor boy!! GRRRR!!! I don't care HOW he was acting!! No child deserves what he got!

How could they just STAND there watching her bloody her son?!?!?! The grandmother should be charged also and probably will be. One of the 911 callers said they will testify they saw her throw him to the ground. GOOD! She probably started or perpetuated that whole cycle of abuse!

Yes...she was on LIFETIME parole for abuse...yet they gave her back her badly bruised son (same son she was now beating again) when he was five years old! Sounds like the system again let another child fall through the cracks for years of abuse.

I was in a mall once and saw a huge woman smack an infant less than two months old in the face. While there were able-bodied men and others standing less than a few feet away, I jumped in and physically tore the baby out of her arms while yelling for security to restrain her. I even had to scream for someone to call the police!!! The woman was screaming at me, but didn't try to attack me. The people standing around finally DID something, but not until the smallest person there jumped in first! It burned me up!!

Turned out...they had already taken her many other children for abuse, but didn't know about the birth of the last!!!

IT IS a broken system! What are we doing to fix it?!

GlitchWizard said:

The WalMarts of the world will be safer with people like you in it to set an example.

PS
What would you do to a woman who grabbed up a kid and the kid was screaming "THIS IS NOT MY PARENT!" ... just curious.

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I think I would try calling security, but if I felt things weren't being done quickly enough I would have intervened. I wonder what their policy is about that?
Honestly guys, I'm on WS for a reason-just like most of you, and I would not and could not sit idly by while some kid was being taken unwillingly out of the store, or abused physically/verbally. If walmart were to have a problem with that, well they could kiss my hiney.
Unfortunately, we can't tell people how to raise their kids while they are at walmart. You would be amazed how many people bring their kids there at 9,10,11pm. One lady had her son there at 11pm last week. She was so proud because he was starting his first day of kindergarten the next day-ha! like he was gonna be able to stay awake for any of it!!

Jesus, I would be all over that mother. What the hell is wrong with people that they didn't intervene? What a bunch of gutless worms. I'm so angry now.

Edit: Walmart isn't the only place to get a job. I would gladly break "company policy" and lose my job to womp the living crap out of that woman to protect that child.

GlitchWizard said:

WalMart employees are asked not to intervene.

Okay, so what about the 99% of the person who isn't an employee, but a human being?

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HELLO! That's what I was thinking. I would have dragged those *advertiser censored* out of that store and kicked them in the butt so hard they wouldn't know what hit them. I cannot believe anyone stood around and watched that poor little boy get beat.

I must tell you that as I was falling asleep last night, I did begin to wonder if the kid was smart enough to actually do something to piss his mother off on purpose in that store. I'll tell you why I thought that. He must have been getting beaten on a regular basis at home. We all know that if a parent will hit a kid in public, at home the hitting MUST be way worse. What if the kid knew somehow that his mother hitting him in public would get him taken away from her??? Wouldn't that be brillant??

After all, the mother is on LIFETIME probatation due to the previous case in which her three month old son was murdered by her boyfriend. This child who was beaten at Wal-Mart, was five years old at the time and he even had bruises on him at that time.

OMG! I saw pictures of this on the news last night.
This biotch needs to be neutered and locked up for life.
This poor, poor little boy and his poor sibling who died at the ^^^^^'s hands.

LOL, I gotta stay out of this thread. I'm seriously ready to drop some f-bombs on these women. I'm supercharged right now.

Jeana (DP) said:

HELLO! That's what I was thinking. I would have dragged those *advertiser censored* out of that store and kicked them in the butt so hard they wouldn't know what hit them. I cannot believe anyone stood around and watched that poor little boy get beat.

I must tell you that as I was falling asleep last night, I did begin to wonder if the kid was smart enough to actually do something to piss his mother off on purpose in that store. I'll tell you why I thought that. He must have been getting beaten on a regular basis at home. We all know that if a parent will hit a kid in public, at home the hitting MUST be way worse. What if the kid knew somehow that his mother hitting him in public would get him taken away from her??? Wouldn't that be brillant??

After all, the mother is on LIFETIME probatation due to the previous case in which her three month old son was murdered by her boyfriend. This child who was beaten at Wal-Mart, was five years old at the time and he even had bruises on him at that time.

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Jeana?? I have a question about "lifetime" Probation....
Under normal circumstances if someone is on probation and they break the law then they usually must spend the remainder of their probation time in prison...
Would that (hopefully!!) apply here?