DeKalb church day care workers arrested, face child abuse charges

DeKalb County deputies this week arrested two Clarkston day care workers accused of abusing a child.

Police allege the women were captured on surveillance video last month punching and repeatedly pushing a 3-year-old boy at Clarkston First Baptist Academy. Clarkston police issued warrants Friday for both workers on charges of first-degree cruelty to children.

Autumn Coney, a 43-year-old Decatur woman, was arrested Monday and has since been released from jail, online booking records show.

DeKalb deputies arrested 21-year-old Bernetta Glover on Thursday. The Lithonia woman remained in custody Thursday evening.

Both women turned themselves in at the DeKalb County Jail, according to a spokesperson from the DeKalb sheriff’s office. The alleged abuse occurred at the day care July 6, police said.

An arrest warrant obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution alleges Glover assaulted the child by “grabbing him by his upper arms causing visible injury, shoving him down repeatedly, and grabbing him by his face and screaming at him” over the course of two hours.

Coney, in her warrant, is accused of grabbing the child by “his upper arms causing visible injury, picking him up and pushing him into a wall, and yelling in his face.”

Police began investigating the allegations July 13 after reports of the surveillance footage surfaced. Krystin Collier told Channel 2 Action News the footage showed the suspects pulling her son off the ground by his hair and throwing him into a corner of the classroom. She said the teachers also appeared to slap the child and punch him with a closed fist, according to a police report.