Disturbing photos have emerged of a father dragging a visibly distressed little girl through a US supermarket store by her hair.
In a post to her Facebook page on Monday, Erika Burch wrote that she and her husband Robert were at Wal-Mart in Cleveland, Texas, when they saw the five-year-old and her father.
"He had her hair wrapped around the buggy dragging her," Ms Burch wrote, describing that the girl was begging him to stop. "She was saying, 'please stop, I promise I won't do it again, please stop.'"
A mother herself, Ms Burch wrote that she took some photos on her phone - then asked the father to let go of the distressed little girl's hair.
"He told me to mind my own business," Ms Burch wrote, adding that she said to the man, "Right now this little girl is my business and you need to let her hair go now."
"I grew up just fine," the man responded.
Ms Burch then decided to call the police. "[It] just so happened a cop was in Wal-Mart," she wrote. "Long story short, the officer said if it was up to him the guy was going to jail."
When the officer's Sergeant arrived however, Ms Burch was informed that police could not take the man to jail as the little girl had no visible bruises and no missing hair.
"This after I show him pictures of this idiot dragging this baby, pulling her hair," she wrote, adding that according to the officer, in order for the actions to constitute abuse there had to be bodily injury to the child.
"People this is what's wrong with the world today," Ms Burch wrote, stating that no one stands up for anyone, not even children. "Now this baby had to go home with this monster thinking that nobody cared about her and it's okay for this animal to pull her by the hair of her head."
Ms Burch posted a number of photos of the incident to Facebook, along with a card displaying the case number. Imploring others to call child protective services, she wrote, "This is beyond wrong and something needs to be done about it."
The mother's post, and the accompanying photos, has been shared over 100,000 times by Wednesday afternoon, many condemning both the father's extreme discipline, and the police response to Ms Burch's report.
In an update on Tuesday Cleveland Police Department posted a message to their Facebook Page, advising that they had received numerous calls about the "child having her hair pulled last night at Cleveland Wal-Mart."
"We want to assure the community that this case is currently being investigated by our Detective Division," the post reads. "CPS has been contacted per our policy and is also investigating this case. A joint investigation is currently being conducted by both agencies."
Cleveland Police Chief Darrel Broussard told KTKR that police hold concerns for the children residing with the father, "who appeared to have been a little aggressive at the time."
The father – whom police have not named –told authorities that his three children, including the five-year-old girl, had been "disruptive" in the store, reports The Chronicle. Holding his daughter by the hair, the man said, was his method of disciplining her.
CPS spokesperson Tejal Patel told The Chronicle that their investigation was in its early stages. Patel indicated that CPS investigators would work with police to determine whether there is a pattern of "inappropriate discipline" within the family and whether the agency can provide services to assist them.