Florida mom arrested for allegedly abusing 6-year-old son over unbuckled car seat

A 47-year-old Florida mom faces child abuse charges after she was allegedly caught in the act by a neighbor’s doorbell camera footage, police say. 

A homeowner reportedly contacted the Sunrise Police Department after seeing – and hearing – a woman pull a child out of the back seat of her SUV by his hair, then chucking his booster seat at the small figure around 2:15 p.m. 

The woman, later identified as Pamela Gladys Gaensel, then put the 6-year-old boy inside the vehicle and repeatedly slapped him, according to video obtained by 7News Miami. She can be seen throwing items over the child’s head and into a neighboring yard before the boy darts out to grab them. 

Later in the footage, Gaensel can be heard calling her son an expletive, prosecutors said at the woman’s Thursday Broward County Circuit Court bail hearing. 

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Gaensel’s two other children, 3 and 7, witnessed the incident from inside the car, per Law & Crime. 

Marks and bruises corresponding with the pictured abuse were found on the boy’s body and face when police tracked him down to his school based on the woman’s license plate information. 

The officers took the woman into custody on Wednesday after waiting for her to pick the boy up at the end of the school day, Law & Crime reported. 

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Gaensel would tell police that she was disciplining the boy for unclipping his car seat. 

Per prosecutors, the woman told police she had only spanked the child – a claim refuted by the provided footage. According to an arrest record obtained by 7News Miami, the incident took place on the 10500 block of Sunset Strip in Sunrise – but it is not immediately clear whether the incident took place outside the woman’s home.

Gaensel was charged with child abuse without great bodily harm, per Broward County Jail records. 

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She bonded out of jail on $5,000 Thursday, wearing a blanket over her head and avoiding reporters’ questions outside the facility, per NBC 6 South Florida. 

The mother was ordered to have no contact with her son until notified otherwise by the state’s Department of Children and Families – her three children were placed in their father’s custody. 

 

Fox News Digital could not reach the Sunrise Police Department of the Broward County State Attorney’s Office for comment at press time.

Gaensel and her attorney could not immediately be reached.