A white North Carolina man has been charged with several counts of assault after cellphone video of him punching a Black preteen girl to the ground outside of a mall on Saturday night surfaced.

There was some type of altercation outside of a mall, and an adult SWS male viciously and cowardly attacks a small teenage Black girl. We need to identify this man pic.twitter.com/w9SZ96Rl6d

— Tariq Nasheed (@tariqnasheed) January 13, 2019

In the now-viral video, David Steven Bell, 51, barks at a group of teenage girls outside of the Asheville Mall, yelling at them to "break it up." As Bell directs his attention elsewhere, an unidentified teen shoves him in the back. The girl walks toward Bell again, and he quickly pushes her into a metal pole. As the girl approaches him one more time, Bell clenches his fist and hits the adolescent, knocking her out cold.

The Asheville Citizen-Times reports an off-duty deputy detained Bell shortly after the incident. He was hit with class A1 misdemeanor charges, assault on a woman 12 years of age and under and two counts of assault on a woman. The victim refused medical attention and was not transported to a local hospital.

On its official Facebook page, the Asheville Mall released a statement addressing the video and confirmed that "an arrest has been made."

Activist and reporter Shaun King reports Bell was released from custody shortly after being booked. On Instagram King wrote, "Local police charged the man with a damn misdemeanor. He’s already out. A misdemeanor. I’m furious."

View this post on Instagram

I’m sorry to share this, but I need the police and prosecutors to feel our full wrath on this. Last night, at the Asheville Mall in Asheville, North Carolina, David Steven Bell, listed as 6 foot 5 inches tall, and 250 pounds, first shoved, then knocked out an 11 year old girl with a closed fist punch right to her face. Mall cops hardly took the thing seriously and local police charged the man with a damn misdemeanor. He’s already out. A misdemeanor. I’m furious.

A post shared by Shaun King (@shaunking) on Jan 13, 2019 at 5:18pm PST

Heavy reports Bell was released from jail early Sunday morning. If found guilty, the piano teacher could serve a 150-day sentence for each of the charges he faces.

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