Officer Appears To Smack Child For Biting Him (VIDEO)

In the heat of a custody battle, a police officer smacked a child in the head after the boy apparently bit him.

Police in Eugene, Ore. say the 10-year-old boy ran away from them as they tried to enforce a court order in the custody dispute, KVAL reports.

In a video making the rounds on Facebook, one of the officers appears to smack the boy in the head, then claims to witnesses that the boy bit him.

"You do not hit that child. You do not hit an underage child," the person holding the camera says.

Cops told the station on Monday that the boy's unidentified mother told him to run away to avoid having to go to his biological father's house. The mother was living in a bus in Monroe Street Park.

The boy can be seen in the video sobbing as witnesses spew profanity laced threats. The officer appears to ignore a shirtless boy who says he would "blow up" juvenile hall to free the boy in custody. Other witnesses make threats about lawsuits and posting the video on Facebook.

A Eugene Police official admitted to KBOI that the child should be treated professionally whether he bit the officer or not. He also said the officers on duty were "just doing their job."