Arianna Williams, Minnesota Autism worker repeatedly assaults toddler, pushing him to the floor before throwing child to the floor in footage captured at Sunrise Autism Center in Burnsville. Later sends text blaming assault on ‘bad start to the week.’
Surveillance video has emerged showing a Minnesota autism center worker repeatedly pushing a 3-year-old boy to the floor.
Arianna Williams, 25, in the footage captured at the facility, is seen grabbing the child by his shoulder and push him to the floor as he casually walked by. After the boy gets up, Williams shoves him back down again, causing him to scream.
Williams then picks up the autistic child into the air and violently throws him to the floor a third time. The incident led to the boy having to be sent to hospital.
Upon learning of the assault, management fired Williams and notified police. Following her arrest, Williams was charged with malicious punishment of a child.
The incident occurred at Sunrise Autism Center in Burnsville, just south of Minneapolis. It was Williams’ first day working with kids without direct supervision, WCCO-TV reported.
After being fired, investigators say, Williams sent a text to a co-worker, reading in part, ‘I’d never purposely hurt anyone I was just having a really bad start to the week.’
It is not clear when the incident occurred, but the nonverbal boy started attending the facility after being diagnosed with autism in 2023, his mother told WCCO-TV.
Sunrise Autism Center issued a statement saying that they were ‘cooperating with the investigation and their priority remains the safety and wellbeing of our clients.’
Farhiya, a Somali American, told WCCO that her son was diagnosed with autism last year and that she had enrolled him at the center for speech and occupational therapy.
He had only been attending for a week before the assault took place, she added.
The boy’s mother said Williams should not be allowed to work with children.
‘I hope she never is able to work somewhere with kids, especially children with disabilities,’ the mother told the television station, speaking in Somali. ‘She should never be trusted with children ever.’
Adding, ‘You would think she doesn’t have a heart.’
Williams is scheduled to next appear in court on June 20.
