NEWNAN, Ga. — A mother is facing an aggravated assault charge after Newnan police said she handed a golf club to a 16-year-old who used it to strike another teenager during a fight.
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The 14-year-old victim, identified by her mother as Keira, suffered a fractured skull and was airlifted to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Video of the fight at the Highland Apartments on Ball Street shows several teenagers screaming, throwing punches and pulling each other’s hair.
During the fight, video appears to show an adult with a golf club. Police say that woman, Curtisia Heath, handed the golf club to her daughter before the teen beat Kiera in the head with it.
Heath was booked into the Coweta County Jail on an aggravated assault charge.
Newnan police said Heath’s two teenage daughters were taken to a youth detention center and are facing the same charge. Police described the golf club as a “deadly weapon.”
“You let your child hurt my child. I am going to get justice,” Keira’s mother, Syrite Harps, told Channel 2 Action News.
Harps said she rushed to the apartment complex after learning her daughter had been hit in the head. When she arrived, she said Keira was unresponsive.
“When I walked up to her, I was like, ‘Keira, say something. I need you to say something to me,’” Harps said. “They kept lifting up her hands and lifting up her hands, and finally she started slowly opening her eyes.”
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Harps said doctors treated Keira for a fractured skull and placed staples in gashes on her head. She believes her daughter’s injuries would not have been as severe if Heath didn’t hand her daughter the golf club in the fight.
“I’m going to let the law handle it,” Harps said. “I’m going to get justice. The same way you take up for your kids, I take up for my kids like that, too.”
Harps said the conflict began after teenagers picked on Keira over an outfit she wore during her school’s spirit week. She said Keira went to confront the other girls before the fight broke out.
“We tried to give you the chance to talk to us as an adult, and you did not want to do that,” Harps said. “And then you turn around and let your child hurt my child.”
Cherry Hart, who identified herself as the mother of Curtisia Heath, disputed how others have interpreted the video.
“What I see in that video is her protecting her kids and breaking up the fight, merely breaking up the fight,” Hart said.
Harps said doctors expect Keira to make a full recovery and said she could be released from the hospital as early as Tuesday.
Heath faces an aggravated assault charge. Newnan police says the two teens were taken to the Youth Detention Center where they face the same charge.
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