The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club of Greater Atlanta is seeking a temporary restraining order against a father who allegedly threatened a 6-year-old boy for calling his daughter ugly.
Executive Director Lisa Smith said Tuesday the organization turned to the courts out of concern for the safety of the staff and children at the Bellwood Center, which is in a high-crime neighborhood around English Avenue in Atlanta. The center offers free meals, swimming lessons, computers for games, recreation and classes on healthy eating and exercise.
The two incidents, the first with D’nur Sanford and the boy and a second with Sanford and a center employee, both happened in April. The motion for a restraining order was filed in Fulton Superior Court on Friday.
Sanford could not be located for comment Tuesday.
“Mr. D’nur entered the learning center of the club, grabbed a 6-year-old club member out of his seat and told the little boy if he called his daughter ugly again he would come back and get him,” Smith wrote in the request for a temporary restraining order.
Outside the center, Sanford allegedly confronted the center employee,” Kamaria Womack, when she came outside for a break.
“You’re the one that snitched on me,” Sanford allegedly said to Womack on June 17, almost seven weeks after he challenged the boy. “We’re outside now. I can say what I been wanting to say… You don’t understand who you are messing with.”
The motion says Sanford approached Womack a second time on June 18 to ask if she was afraid of him.
“The safety and well-being of our club members and staff is paramount to the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Atlanta — Bellwood Club,” Smith wrote in the motion. “Mr. Sanford (sic) actions have compromised the safety of a 6-year-old boy and one of our staff members. His actions are considered unpredictable and we are concerned he may retaliate again more aggressively.”
Smith said Sanford’s two children are still attending programs at the center but the father has not been back.
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