Man Kicks Toddler, Hurls Racial Slurs At Supermarket, Charged With Battery

A 31-year-old white man allegedly kicked a black toddler at a supermarket in Wichita, Kansas, in an incident described by police as a “racially motivated bias crime.” Trace Riff, the accused was arrested on a count of “battery that was of bias and racially motivated” and resisting arrest.

Police arrived at the Dillons store in the 3000 block of East Douglas on Sunday, after receiving calls of an assault.

"Through the investigation, it was learned Trace walked into the Dillons store and kicked a 1-year-old victim in the back, causing the child to fall on the floor," police said, adding that when they arrived the accused “was being held on (the) ground by onlookers.”

Police said that the man assaulted the toddler while yelling obscenities and racial slurs. The child was with his mother, Lashantai Whitaker, when the incident took place.

On Wednesday, Whitaker spoke to local media detailing what happened at the store.

"We were barely in the store and (Trace) kicked him in his back," Whitaker said. "All I heard was a loud thud and my daughter screaming."

The mother said that the man was trying to escape after assaulting her son but another customer quickly tackled him. She said her son was not seriously injured, but "he could have done serious damage."

Whitaker says she's confused about why the man started attacking her child and hoped he does time for what he did.

"What grown person, I mean, even if you do have that much hate for someone,... I mean, why would you attack a baby?" Whitaker added.

In a similar incident in October, a 15-year-old boy was abused and pushed onto train tracks by three adults in Flanders, Belgium. The boy was waiting for a train along with his older sister and younger brother in August this year, when he was attacked by two women and a man. Video of the incident showed a man pushing the boy onto the tracks, following a heated argument. However, it was not known if the attack was racially motivated.

In another racially motivated incident in July, a mother and her toddler son were targeted in an attack in Connecticut. Thaniyyah Hutchinson, 37, reportedly said that she was helping an unidentified black man who was being physically assaulted by a group of five white people. After the man managed to leave the scene, the same group began attacking Hutchinson whose toddler son was in the backseat of her car. They allegedly jumped on the hood of the mother’s car and yelled racist slurs at her and her child.