Ga. dollar store clerk charged with "whipping" customer's child with a belt, police say

(CBS/AP) WRIGHTSVILLE, Ga. - Emilia Bell, a dollar store employee in Wrightsville, Ga., was arrested for simple battery after allegedly whipping a customer's child with a belt on Jan. 31.

CBS affiliate WMAZ-TV reports the store's surveillance video shows an 8-year-old boy running around the store and eventually throwing a cookie at the 39-year-old Bell.

Authorities say Bell took off her belt, chased the boy down and spanked him behind the counter.

The boy's father called police and Bell was immediately taken into custody. Police said she was free on bond Feb. 1.

WMAZ-TV reports police are now planning to upgrade the charge from simple battery to aggravated assault based on additional video shot at a different angle that shows Bell spanking the boy with a belt nearly 25 times.

According to a police incident report obtained by the station, Bell admitted that she "whipped the child with her belt because he had thrown a battery and a cookie at her."

Store surveillance video of the incident hasn't been made public, but the boy's father, Jody Ivey, told the station he watched it.

"It wasn't a spanking, it was more or less a beating than a spanking the way she was hitting him. I don't know how to explain it and I don't want to think about it," Ivey said.

The 8-year-old boy spoke to the station and recounted his version of what happened.

"So I walked down this aisle and I see the lady. She started calling me a demon, so I said 'I'll show you bad' and I picked up a cookie and I threw it at her. So then she starts chasing me around the Dollar General with her belt and takes me behind the counter and starts beating me with her belt," he said.

WMAZ-TV called Bell's home, and a man who identified himself as her husband said she declined to comment. The manager at the dollar store also declined to comment.