By Joe Johnson
An Athens man was arrested this week on assault and child cruelty charges after he intentionally crashed his car into another car that was occupied by his two children and their mother, an Athens-Clarke County police official said.
According to Lt, Shaun Barnett, ACCPD’s public information officer, the incident occurred early Tuesday morning at a local hotel where 29-year-old Miquavious L. Flanagan was staying with the 24-year-old mother of their two young children.
After the couple got involved in an argument, Barnett said, the woman left the hotel with the children and drove to Bulldawg Pizza on South Milledge Avenue to get food.
When Flanagan followed, the argument continued at the restaurant, where he broke off the windshield wipers from the victim's Nissan Sentra, Barnett said, and then used the wipers to break one of the windows, causing broken glass to fall on the victim.
According to Barnett, Flanagan then got into his Ford Mustang and intentionally backed it into the driver's side of the Sentra, in which the couple’s children, ages 3 and 4, were in the back seat.
Flanagan was arrested and charged under the state Family Violence Act with three counts of aggravated assault, two counts of first-degree cruelty to children, and one count of criminal damage to property.
As of Thursday morning, he continued to be held at the county jail without bail being set for the assault charges.
Anyone who is in an abusive relationship can seek advice and services by calling Project Safe’s 24-hour hotline at (706) 543-3331, or by visiting http://www.project-safe.org.