'Don't touch my mom!' 10-year-old Bluffton girl saves mother from brutal beating

A 10-year-old girl saved her mom from further harm Friday when she called 911 as her mother was being beaten, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff's Office report.

"Hey, I know what you're doing to my mom! I'm calling the police," the girl shouted at her mother's boyfriend as she called deputies to the Avalon Shores apartment complex on Simmonsville Road in Bluffton.

Deputies arrived about 1 a.m. to find the girl standing at the door and crying, the report said. The boyfriend had fled before deputies arrived.

The victim said her boyfriend, who lives in the apartment with her and her two children, had been coming and going throughout the night, behavior that struck her as odd. About 11 p.m., she tried to call 911, but he took her phone away, the report said. She managed to call 911 again at 11:24 p.m. and 11:35 p.m. but did not complete the calls, the report said.

At about 12:45 a.m., the boyfriend accused her of cheating on him and pushed her onto the floor outside her daughters' room. Later, when the two were together in one of the bedrooms, he began to beat her, the report said.

The victim told deputies she heard one of her daughters scream, "Don't touch my mom," the report said. The boyfriend then left.

Deputies obtained an arrest warrant for second degree domestic violence against the boyfriend.

In South Carolina, second degree domestic violence is a misdemeanor. The Island Packet and the Beaufort Gazette do not name suspects charged with misdemeanors.