South Charleston police allege that a man abused two children he knows while they were out of school on Thanksgiving break.
Timothy D. Rush, 27, faces two felony charges of child abuse resulting in injury, according to two criminal complaints in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.
Teachers at Edgewood Elementary School noticed a student had a bruise on the right side of his forehead and right forearm, as well as numerous scratches on both sides of his head, police said.
The boy told the teachers that he had the marks because Rush allegedly "hit him because he was being bad," according to the first complaint.
The boy was taken to a hospital. While there, he told nurses that Rush had hit with his fist, the complaint said.
Rush is dating the boy's aunt and had been living with them.
In the second incident, police allege that Rush picked his girlfriend's 9-year-old daughter up by her hair and slammed her onto a bed, "slapping and choking her in her bedroom," the second complaint reads. Police say Rush is the boyfriend of the girl's guardian.
Rush is being held at the South Central Regional Jail on a $10,000 bond.