Police made a pair of arrests Saturday after a child custody exchange turned violent, Livermore Police Sgt. Mike Mayberry said.
At around 10 a.m. officers responded to a report of a man beating another man with a pipe at the Applebee's parking lot on First Street, Mayberry said.
When officers arrived on scene they contacted two males, Betlimus Atai and Mirwais Amoni.
Both men have had previous contact with police over an ongoing custody dispute, Mayberry said.
Police said during Saturday's child custody exchange Atai, 35, pulled his son out of Amoni's vehicle through the driver's side window and dragged him back to his car.
Amoni, 37 and the chid's step father, then reached for a baton in his vehicle and began to strike Atai with the weapon multiple times, Mayberry said.
Amoni was arrested on suspicion of possession of a baton, Mayberry said.
Atai was arrested on suspicion of child cruelty and is scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Monday in Department 701 of the Gale-Schenone Hall of Justice in Pleasanton. He is currently being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin in lieu of a $100,000 bail.
It is not an excuse for violence, but violence may have been the originating factor here and the family/child was not protected as they could have been.
"22210. Except as provided in Section 22215 and Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 17700) of Division 2 of Title 2, any person in this state who manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the state, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, or who gives, lends, or possesses any leaded cane, or any instrument or weapon of the kind commonly known as a billy, blackjack, sandbag, sandclub, sap, or slungshot, is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year or imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170." Only police and security personnel (& criminals) are allowed to have a baton. It is legal in Arizona but not here.
Punishing someone for protecting a child from a known violent individual that the court orders to have contact with is unconscionable! We go through this every 2 weeks! In spite of criminal protection orders, restraining orders, criminal history and history of noncompliance with orders and police investigations of ongoing crminal activity it continues! I am one of these moms and I can assure you I am present and continue to do everything I can to protect my child. I pray every 2 weeks my child returns unharmed. He is traumatized by the system that forces him to endure. His step dad is his hero. His biological dad is nothing but a court ordered tormentor.
http://www.familylawcourts.com/kids_killed.html