An elderly Miami woman is facing an aggravated child abuse charge after police say she attacked a 10-year-old girl with a hammer.
Iona Aiken, 79, was arrested Monday afternoon following the attack at a home at 14145 Madison Street, according to a Miami-Dade police arrest report.
Aiken was being held on $15,000 bond Tuesday, jail records showed. It was unknown whether she had an attorney.
According to the report, Aiken lives with the 10-year-old girl and another person as a family. As the girl was listening to headphones and playing with a tablet, Aiken "without warning and for unknown reasons" started hitting her with the hammer, the report said.
The victim said Aiken struck her four times on the head and once on the shoulder, causing a laceration and a concussion, the report said.
The girl and her mother then ran to the home of a neighbor who helped the girl stop the bleeding from her head.
“I’m the one that stopped the bleeding from the little girl,” said the neighbor, Dora Anderson. “She’s sitting in the chair, and I just held it there until the police came.
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“I’m surprised at this because I knew she had been sick because she took care of me when I was sick," she said. "I was very sick, I couldn’t walk and she took me to go shopping and to the doctor, but I didn’t know she was this sick.”
The child was taken to Baptist Hospital for treatment. Officers took Aiken into custody.
