SUNRISE, Fla. – A mother is facing a child abuse charge after police said she was caught on camera tossing her 6-year-old son out of her car by his hair and then throwing a booster seat at him during a brutal beating in Sunrise on Wednesday.
It happened just after 3 p.m. on the side of the road off Sunset Strip and 105th Lane.
State prosecutors said 47-year-old Pamela Gaensel claimed that she was disciplining her child and only spanked him, but the attack left the boy with marks on his back from being slapped and multiple bruises to his face, arm and palms.
Audio from surveillance cameras in the area captured Gaensel yelling obscenities at her son and overheard the sounds of her slapping him more than a half dozen times on the side of the road, according to police.
Authorities said during the attack, Gaensel put the child back into the car before throwing him to the ground a second time, at which time the boy was crying and pleading for his mother to stop.
Sunrise police said their officers were able to confirm the allegations after a nearby home captured the entire incident on surveillance video.
Gaensel’s arrest report states that the incident happened while the child’s 7-year-old brother and a young sibling were in the car.
She is facing one count of child abuse without great bodily harm, according to jail records.
After appearing in Broward bond court Thursday, a judge set her bond at $5,000 which she has already posted.
She bonded out of jail on Thursday evening, covering her face and refusing to respond regarding the allegations against her.
Gaensel was ordered to have no contact with her son unless she was permitted by the Florida Department of Children and Families, which is now investigating the case.
Following Gaensel’s arrest, all three children were turned over to their father, her arrest report states.
Local 10 News has reached out to the Sunrise Police Department to request video of the attack.