Bowling Green Police arrested a woman for domestic violence Thursday around 11:30 p.m. (April 25) after her children made multiple 911 calls asking for help at their home in the 600 block of North Summit Street.
When police arrived at the home, a juvenile opened the door. The child reportedly put his index finger up to his mouth, then hid in the kitchen. The first officer at the scene saw multiple children hiding behind the corner wall in the kitchen.
The mother, Laura Cruz-Gijon, 39, came to the door and reportedly tried to close it, when the officer wedged his foot in the door frame.
The officer escorted three of the children, ages 8 to 12, downstairs to get away from their mother’s yelling.
The children told police one of them got locked out of the house, so he broke one panel of glass on the door to get inside. When their mother arrived home, she reportedly became angry and repeatedly hit the boy with an air fryer. At one point, the child ducked to avoid the fryer being thrown at him, with that item then breaking the TV screen.
Cruz-Gijon told police that one of the children was grounded because he missed school that day. She reportedly could not remember what school he attends. Police asked Cruz-Gijon if she hit the boy with an air fryer, she reportedly said no, adding if she did “he wouldn’t be walking.”
Photos were taken of the red marks on the child’s arm.
Cruz-Gijon reportedly began yelling about how her children were “spoiled.”
An officer took the children out to sit in a police cruiser, reportedly to get them away from their mother’s screaming.
The children reportedly told officers that their mother has hit them with pans, brooms, and irons, with one child saying she once beat him with wire on his back and buttocks. The children also said the mother has threatened them with a knife, threatened to kick them out of the house and to beat them until they can’t walk.
Cruz-Gijon was taken to Wood County Jail, and the case was reported to Wood County Children’s Services.
The children said they wanted to be with their adult sister. Police officers stayed at the home, putting the children to bed and cleaning up the broken glass in the house. They left when the sister arrived.
