BAKER, LA  A man has been arrested after he reportedly beat his live-in girlfriend’s child, causing the child to try to run away from home, WAFB TV reports. 

On Monday, January 29, an officer with the Baker Police Department was dispatched to a home on Burgess Drive about a child left alone in a park behind the house.

The homeowner told the officer the child was in the park behind her home with his belongings and that he had bruises on his body and did not want to go back home because he was scared.

Officers spoke with the child, who said he was afraid to go back home because he was afraid he’d be beaten. He also reportedly said he would rather be a ward of the state than return home. The child also said he had been hit with several objects, including a metal rod, belts, and an extension cord.

He was taken to the Baker Police Department, where officers observed bruises on the back of both of his legs, under his buttocks, and bruises on his arms that appeared to be older.

The child reportedly told officers it was his mother’s live-in boyfriend, Maurice Hubbard, 34, who had beaten him. 

Officers then requested the parents come in for questioning, according to WAFB. 

Hubbard was interviewed and confirmed the child was being raised as his son and that he had been disciplining the child, but only with a belt. Hubbard then retracted the statement, claiming the boy’s mother spanks him as punishment, but that he makes the boy do physically restraining activities, such as kneeling in his room for hours with his hands in the air.

Hubbard denied being responsible for the boy’s bruises. 

The mother of the boy was also interviewed. She reportedly told officers she had witnessed Hubbard tell the boy he was “going to beat his a**.” The mother also said she saw Hubbard grab an extension cord from the living room wall and take it into the boy’s bedroom. She said Hubbard spanked the boy for about five minutes, then she took Hubbard on a drive so he could “cool down,” since he gets “too upset at times.”

Hubbard was then arrested and transported to the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, where he was charged with domestic abuse battery with child endangerment and cruelty to a juvenile.