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Last updated on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
(GREENWOOD) - Greenwood Police arrested Sabrina Johnson, 30, after receiving a call of possible child abuse Sunday from Johnson’s sister.
Johnson's sister and her mother both responded to the family apartment after hearing a commotion next door.
"I heard the door slam and I heard her go upstairs and I heard the kids start screaming because she was whooping them," said Gail Austin, Sabrina Johnson's mother.
Gail Austin said her daughter yelled that she was "gonna kill these kids" before she began hitting her three boys. She later struck her 13-year-old son in the head with her purse. Austin said her grandson then struggled with his mother in an attempt to fight back.
"He started screaming, 'Stop beating on me! Stop beating on me. Stop beating on my brothers. We're tired of it. We can't take it anymore.' But by that time I was up there and I seen him. He had a hold of her and she had him up against the refrigerator and she banged his head. Me and my other daughter got him loose and when we got him loose she bit him on the arm."
Johnson then reportedly kicked her mother and sister out of the apartment.
Police had to break down Johnson's front door when they arrived on the scene. They found the 13-year-old boy standing with his face against the wall inside of one of the bedrooms. Police said the boy had bleeding scratch marks on his face. The boy also had a fresh bite mark on his left arm. He said his mother bit him because he was trying to stop her from beating his two younger brothers.
Police said the boy's 6-year-old brother also had marks on his arms. While their 10-year-old brother didn't have any new injuries, he told police that his mother had beaten him several days earlier, leaving him unable to sit down.
Johnson admitted to police that she hit her children. She said she was trying to discipline them for messing with the water cooler. Johnson also said she bit her 13-year-old son, but only because she was trying to get him off of her.
"I don't blame him," Austin said. "He's just trying to defend himself and his little brothers, and the cops told him the same thing."
Johnson was arrested on two counts of battery with injury. She is being held in the Johnson County Jail on $6,000 bond.
The children have been placed in protective custody.
Austin says she repeatedly tried to tell Johnson to not be so hard on her kids. Now that she's in jail she says she's given up hope on her daughter.
"My concern is my grandkids," Austin said. "That's my concern. Right now it hurts me because I don't know where they are, but I know that they're not being mistreated."
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