LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A day care worker caught on video spraying a 2-year-old with some kind of substance has been arrested Tuesday.
According to the Bardstown Police Department, 35-year-old Heather Snellen was arrested on a charge of fourth-degree assault (child abuse).
The move comes one day after several people held a protest outside Little Angels Primary House, the Bardstown day care where Snellen formerly worked.
Snellen was fired after a coworker caught her spraying the 2-year-old boy with something in a bottle and that video was posted to social media.
"I’ve heard that it was water," said April Tonge, the boy's mother. "But if you seen the video — if you seen the way he turned around, glanced and grabbed his face — that was no water."
The video, which had more than 650 shares on Facebook as of Monday, shows the child wincing and falling to the ground after he is sprayed by an employee at Little Angels Primary House.
Tonge said the video was taken April 26. She posted it to Facebook two days later.
According to the Bardstown Police Department, the boy's mother spoke to detectives Monday, and police launched an investigation. Police interviewed witnesses, including Snellen, and requested surveillance video from the day care, but the cameras were not functioning, according to police.
On Tuesday, an arrest warrant was issued for Snellen after police consulted with the Nelson County Attorney's Office. The arrest warrant says Snellen, "grabbed a toddler by the arm and drug him across the floor, causing physical injury to the toddler."
No reference to the spray bottle is made.
Snellen was taken into custody a short time later. She is currently being held in the Nelson County Detention Center.
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