I remember once when my son was around 4, he was misbehaving as we left a store. He kicked me, and I reprimanded him as we stood on the sidewalk. An older man witnessed the interaction and, unprompted, inserted himself into the situation. I asked him to leave us alone because his presence wasn’t asked for, and he was quite rude about it.
That’s why I understand a mom from Florida who was recently in a similar situation. She disciplined her preschooler in public in a way that reportedly drew anger from a man by the name of Terry Williams and his wife, Mary. When she asked them to back off, however, things quickly escalated.
It’s unknown why the couple decided to get involved.
The mom told police that her 4-year-old son was misbehaving and he spit in her face, so she reprimanded him, People reported, citing WPLG. She admitted to the police that she gave him one smack in the mouth and one on the side of his torso.
A man then approached her, claiming to work for the Florida Department of Children and Families. He told her she couldn’t yell at her son or hit him. The man was later identified as 66-year-old Terry Williams.
The mom told the man to leave her alone, and she said he walked away, seemingly respecting her ask, per People. She told police that his wife, 63-year-old Mary Williams, also approached her.
Mary Williams was more aggressive with her approach, the mom said. She also tried to talk to the mom about how she disciplined her son.
In the arrest report obtained by the outlet, the mom said she told Mary Williams to leave as she tried to get her son settled into the car. But the woman refused and stood between the mother and son, not allowing them to leave the parking lot.
The mom tried to move the older woman out of the way, and that’s when things got ugly.
According to the mom, Mary Williams scratched and choked her to the point that she felt she was going to pass out, People reported. Then she grabbed her shirt.
Terry Williams soon joined in, grabbing the mom’s shirt and hair. According to the arrest report, the couple ended up ripping off the mom’s shirt, leaving her only in her bra. Mary Williams also reportedly went into the mom’s car, turning it off and taking her keys, per the outlet. Police confirmed the mom had scratch marks on her throat and a cut on her lip.
The couple were both arrested — Terry Williams was charged with battery and released after paying a $2,500 bond, People reported. His wife, on the other hand, was charged with simple battery and burglary, and as of May 7, 2026, she was being held on a $5,000 bond at Broward County Main Jail.
When stopped by a reporter while leaving jail, Terry Williams claimed nothing happened. The person told him what was seen, and his reaction was fascinating. “Wow, really? Interesting,” he said.
The mom spoke out about her ordeal.
“My child was sitting there screaming, ‘mommy,’ because he was watching me get attacked, scratched, clawed and bruised,” the mom, who asked not to be identified, told Local 10 News. “The fact that my son had watched that and that he witnessed the whole thing.”
Her son wasn’t the only one to see her attacked — a witness told investigators that she saw Terry and Mary Williams pulling the mom by her shirt and her hair as she tried to escape.
“They were on both sides and they were just grabbing her and they were ripping the scrub shirt off of her,” the witness told Local 10 News.
Right now, the mom said she’s trying to just focus on her son’s emotional recovery.
“In the process, my shirt ripped from my neck all the way to my belly button and the only way I can get out of the grass was to get free from my shirt,” she explained. “The next day we got home, he asked me a couple of times, why did she hit me? Why did they attack me? Why did this happen?”
The woman’s lawyers told Local 10 News that they’re pursuing legal action and expect surveillance footage of the incident to be released. Although Davie police confirmed that the video footage exists, they have not released it publicly.
