SUNNY ISLES BEACH, Fla. – A Sunny Isles Beach woman is facing two felony child abuse charges after police said she was caught on doorbell camera videos tossing and kicking her 3-year-old son inside the hallway of her condominium building.
Police said they arrested Yulia Storozhuk, 29, on Tuesday after a neighbor reported the abuse to authorities Monday.
The video clips show Storozhuk yelling at the child while brutally beating him at her condominium in the 17000 block of North Bay Road because she said he “wasn’t listening,” according to Sunny Isles Beach police.
“I observed redness on the victim’s right cheek and right forehead along with bruising on his right forearm and left knee,” the investigating officer wrote in an arrest report. “Scratches were also observed on his stomach and on his back.”
Sunny Isles Beach police Chief Edward Santiago said the clips were infuriating to watch.
“This is not gonna be tolerated, ever. Ever,” he said. “When I saw the video (I was) very angry and we’re not gonna tolerate this. There’s consequences and you’re gonna pay the consequences for this.”
The Florida Department of Children and Families is also investigating.
Speaking through a Russian interpreter, Storozhuk told a judge Wednesday morning that she and her son came to South Florida recently to escape the war in Ukraine and that she works as a flight attendant.
She said she loves her child and apologized for her actions.
“I am very sorry, I’m a single mom,” Storozhuk said in court. “It was the only time I let my emotions take (the) better of me. And I never abused my child. This only happened once.”
The judge ordered Storozhuk to have no contact with her son.
She was held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $5,000 bond until her release Wednesday evening.
Asked by Local 10 News’ Samiar Nefzi if she had anything to say to her son, Storozhuk said, “I’m so sorry. I won’t do this anymore.”
In tears, she was driven away from the jail in an SUV.