Kids, 8 and 10, Protect Mother From Metal Baseball Bat Attack

Children wrestled bat from neighbor, police say

Two Virginia children, ages 8 and 10, fought off their next door neighbor who was attacking their mom with a metal baseball bat, police said.

The melee Tuesday in Arlington left their mother with a black eye and their neighbor in custody.

Police documents say that 27-year-old Kendra Owens repeatedly struck Jennifer Robinson with a baseball bat. The attack didn't stop until Robinson's children wrestled Owens to the ground, took the bat and then struck her with it, police said.

When authorities arrived on the scene just after 6 p.m. Tuesday, the two women were on the ground, and the kids were holding the bat.

Robinson spoke through her lawyer, Deborah Kane, to News4's Pat Collins Thursday.

“She's extremely traumatized. She was attacked," Kane said. "She just underwent eye surgery [Wednesday]. She currently has a tube in her eye."

Kane credited two of Robinson's children with coming to her rescue.

"They were there while the attack was going on, and her son, particularly, tried to get in the way to try to defend her and help her," Kane said.

Police said they are aware of a dispute between the two women, who live in the 2400 block of S. Lowell Street in Arlington.

"This is a long-standing feud between neighbors," Dustin Sternbeck with Arlington County Police said."We’ve been called out to that area before for disputes, issues amongst them, but it never escalated to this type of physical confrontation."

Both women were transported to a local hospital after the fight.

Owens is facing malicious wounding charges. She remained in police custody as of Thursday night. It is not yet known if she has a lawyer.

People who live in the area say this kind of neighbor-on-neighbor violence is not typical.

"It makes no sense," said neighbor Brenda Garner. "I mean, this is a very family-oriented community, and usually, if there is an altercation or disagreement, everyone usually tries to talk it out and work everything out."

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