Grandfather Who Whacks Kids In Wal-Mart For Fun Busted

Man who punched children in Wal-Mart faces more charges

Mar 16 2010

By Theodore Decker, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio


The 68-year-old grandfather accused of punching children's heads in a Northwest Side Walmart faces new charges that he twice assaulted a 2-year-old boy in the same store last month.

Ralph Conone of 5687 Shadowbrook Dr. on the Northwest Side remained jailed after appearing today in Franklin County Municipal Court on two more misdemeanor counts of assault.

Sgt. Rich Weiner, a Columbus Police Division spokesman, said Conone hit the victim in the store on Feb. 28, striking him two times in the head about eight minutes apart.

Sgt. John Hurst of the special victims bureau said investigators reviewed old incident reports connected to the store and found one from that night that warranted further scrutiny.

They spoke to the child's family and went through archived surveillance video at the store to confirm the child had been struck by Conone, he said.

"With the digital age, they can save (the recordings) pretty far back," Hurst said.

The new charges bring Conone's identified victims to three, police said.

He was charged last week with punching two brothers, ages 6 and 7, in the head with his keys sticking out of his fingers. The boys' mother, realizing something was amiss, followed Conone Wednesday night as he left the Wal-Mart at 2700 Bethel Rd. and detained him for security officers.

Police said last week that they had video footage of two other unidentified children being struck by Conone on the same night the brothers were assaulted.

Conone confessed to the assaults, police said. He told them he had been hitting random children in the store since January when their parents weren't looking. He said he did it because it excited him.