Photo: Chris Ryan / OJO Images / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Criminal charges have been filed against a man accused of attacking two young children in separate incidents earlier this month.
Ahsante Lamar Morgan, 23, pleaded not guilty Monday to two counts of child abuse under circumstances or conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
The charges stem from alleged attacks on a girl on March 10 and a boy on March 14, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Santa Monica police said a 6-year-old girl was walking March 10 with her parents on Main Street at Marine Avenue when the assailant spun around from a bus bench where he was sitting and struck the child, causing her to fall to the ground before he fled from the scene. The child was not seriously injured, according to police.
"An incident like this one is an affront to public safety and will not be tolerated -- even more so that a child was involved," Santa Monica Police Chief Ramon Batista said in a video posted on social media. "Any crime committed in Santa Monica is a crime too many. Our department stands strong in the face of anyone who chooses to victimize those who are in this city."
Santa Monica police subsequently noted that the suspect had been arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department "after another incident in Venice."
The LAPD said police arrested the suspect on the Venice boardwalk for allegedly assaulting a 7-year-old child, whose gender they did not provide. It was unclear whether that attack occurred on the boardwalk or elsewhere, and no further details were immediately available.