HOUSTON – A Houston father is facing charges for whipping his 9-year-old boy with an electrical cord, but at least one family member says it wasn’t excessive punishment – just a father disciplining his son.
Jarel Harris, 24, was behind bars Wednesday, charged with injury to a child.
"The child had markings on both of his arms, he had markings on his legs. Red marks. They looked like they were engorged with blood. Some of the injuries seemed as if he had bled from (them). That’s more than just a simple discipline," HPD Officer Jesus Robles said.
Robles said the child was injured Saturday, while visiting his father. On Sunday, when the boy’s mother picked him up, she noticed the markings and took him to a nearby fire station.
Authorities there transported the boy to Texas Children’s Hospital.
But the boy’s grandmother, Gloria Harris, says Jarel was just disciplining his son.
The day the incident occurred, Gloria Harris said the boy had run away from her and Jarel inside an H-E-B store in Pearland.
He was missing for about 30 minutes, until an employee found him near the cosmetics counter.
Gloria said the boy then tried to fight the employee, until Jarel was able to get him and the three went home.
That’s when Gloria said Jarel disciplined her grandson, using an electrical cord.
"They were trying to make it like he was killing him or something, and trust me it was not that," Gloria Harris said.
"This was a case where [the boy] definitely acted up. You’re just 9 years old, and you’re screaming and hollering and running around the store, you’re beating up employees, you’re cussing out your parents, your grandparents, that’s just not appropriate," she added.
