A Florida woman working as an Instacart delivery driver was arrested after she allegedly struck her 6-year-old son in the face during a grocery delivery in St. Augustine — and a Ring doorbell camera recorded the entire incident.
Kiah Lowery, 36, was taken into custody following the May 31 incident at an apartment complex on Alta Street. She now faces a child abuse charge.
According to authorities, Lowery had brought her son along while making grocery deliveries. At one of the stops, she handed the child a 24-pack of bottled water to carry. The boy, who weighs just 49 pounds, immediately struggled under the weight of the 26-pound pack. He stumbled, told his mother he couldn’t hold it, and dropped it.
What happened next was captured on video.
Lowery allegedly chased the child down and slapped him in the face. The boy screamed in pain and cried while holding his face. Lowery then continued to berate him with profanity-laced insults before forcing him to carry items again.
Investigators reviewed the footage and noted in the arrest affidavit that the child was punished for “an action that he was incapable of performing” — the water pack weighed more than half the boy’s body weight.
When questioned by deputies, Lowery acknowledged her actions. She described the episode as an “over-stimulated moment” and apologized. However, law enforcement did not consider this an adequate explanation given what the footage showed.
Lowery was booked into the St. Johns County Jail and has since posted a $5,000 bond. As a condition of her release, she is prohibited from having any contact with her son.
Her case is scheduled to go before a judge on July 7.
The incident has prompted renewed concern among child welfare advocates about the risks children face when accompanying parents during work shifts with no childcare alternatives available.
