A video out of League City that appears to show an adult man putting his hands around an 8-year-old boy’s neck has the child’s mother outraged.
She says she’s even more bothered because on Thursday, a Galveston County grand jury chose not to indict the man in the case.
Adrienne Keenan says the visibly upset man in the video she posted to her Facebook page is her neighbor, Jonathan Tommy Lyon, and the boy he appears to grab by the neck is her 8-year-old son.
”My son came home, and he had urinated in his pants and he was crying,” Keenan said.
She added that moments before Lyon grabbed her son, the young boy and Lyon’s daughters were among a group of kids from the neighborhood doing what kids do.
”That’s what kids do. They go back and forth with each other, get mad with each other, and then five seconds later, they’re talking again,” she said.
While Lyon wasn’t available for an interview, his wife told KPRC 2 that Keenan’s son is a constant bully and what happened was a knee-jerk reaction to their 7 and 5-year-old daughters running in the house saying boys jumped them.
Keenan denies that and maintains no matter what happened between the kids, Lyon crossed the line.
”I don’t understand how an adult would do that to a child and he’s little. Like, they’re not teenagers, they’re little children. He didn’t see the incident,” she said.
After calling League City police, Lyon was charged with injury to a child.
Keenan says she was hopeful for justice but after a Galveston County grand jury chose not to indict, Keenan says that hope was replaced by more frustration.
”I was hoping there would be like probation or counseling or something. I mean, I didn’t want this man to go… he has two kids. I didn’t want him to go to prison,” she said.
Now, Keenan says she’d accept a heartfelt apology from Lyon to her son.
She says her son had to be separated from Lyon’s daughter at school and is still haunted by what happened.
”He’s scared, he does not want to see him at all,” she said.