Latika Sim told WXIA that surveillance video shows her white next-door neighbor, 29-year-old Matt Martel, come running out of his house to attack her 15-year-old son, Malyik, with a belt for using profanity while playing basketball with his cousins in Villa Rica, Georgia:
I was just panicked. I could not believe that in 2021 a fully grown man would think that it was OK to come outside with a belt. When you see the video, [Martel] is running full speed at him and he’s caught off guard.
My son has played football, he has played every sport, he is fully capable of defending himself. But he knew he could not defend himself. So he walked away. He walked away and still this man is chasing him with a belt. So now I am in a full panic because my kids are unprotected.
I have worked in child care for 15 years. I have had kids say crazy things to me, I have had them hit me, I have never once thought, let me take my belt off, and beat someone else’s kid. So even when he’s texting saying, he heard my son say a curse word, I do not care.
Malyik recalled the incident:
And he grabbed me with his hands around my neck. He threw me up against a garage and I hit my head.
Martel told police that he was upset because the kids were using profanity.
(Source: WXIA)