Evansville police are commenting now on the arrest of one of their officers on charges of domestic violence battery.
Evansville Police Chief Billy Bolin said that officers were called Tuesday evening to a report of a boy with bruises to his arms, legs and body. The child told investigators that his father, Evansville police officer, Jamarius Dontae Ward , hit his six year old son about ten times with a flexible, blunt object causing the injuries.
Ward was arrested Wednesday evening and booked into the Vanderburgh County Jail. Bolin said the injuries were consistent with the stories told by the child and his mother.
“The Indiana criminal code allows for reasonable corporal punishment. But the partnering investigators agree this case went beyond what is allowable by law and indeed is criminal by nature.”
Thirty three year old Jamarius Dontae Ward faces a felony charge of domestic violence battery, among others. Ward was not on duty when the incident happened. He is a nine year veteran of the Evansville Police Department.
