Mother ran over 7-year-old son in car after making him walk home as punishment

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An Alabama mother ran her seven-year-old over in her car after forcing him to walk home from school as a punishment, police said.

Sarai Rachel James, 27, picked her son up from school on 9 February and heard from the principal that he had been in trouble earlier that day, according to AL.com.

Ms James stopped the car a short distance from the school and told her son to get out and walk home from there. The school and the house are reportedly eight blocks away from each other.

The boy reportedly tried to grab the door handle while the vehicle was moving, but Ms James accelerated, and he was pulled under the car and run over with the back tire.

He was hospitalized with abrasions.

“It was a miracle he was not hurt worse than what he could have been,” Boaz Police Department Chief Michael Abercrombie said.

Investigators believe the mother ran him over accidentally, though it was her punishment of him that led to the incident, Mr Abercrombie told McClatchy News.

“She may not have realized he was doing that,” he said.

Ms James has been charged with aggravated child abuse, jail records show. She was released on $50,000 bond, and it is unclear if she has retained an attorney.

She is reportedly forbidden from contacting her son.

A 53-year-old woman, who police did not name, was also reportedly in the car at the time of the incident. She has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and was released on $500 bond.