MUDDY CREEK TWP — A man is accused of beating his girlfriend’s 5-year-old son during a Fourth of July outing at Moraine State Park.

Park rangers arrested Wayne J. McBee, 29, of Pittsburgh Monday afternoon.

District Judge Lewis Stoughton later arraigned McBee on a charge of simple assault. He is in the Butler County Prison on $10,000 bail.

Investigators were called about 3:20 p.m. to the park’s Bear Run boat launch after they got a report of a man “violently beating” a child. The boy was not seriously hurt.

The witness related that the suspect, later identified as McBee, took the boy out of a minivan “by his head and proceeded to beat him like a man,” according to court documents.

A ranger interviewed the defendant at the park office. McBee claimed he had taken the boy out of the van after the child urinated in his pants, authorities said.

“The child was crying so McBee stated he covered the child’s mouth,” documents said, “but (he) did not admit to striking the child.”

The investigating officer noted that he eventually obtained written statements from three witnesses who described the defendant as striking the child violently.

Charging documents did not indicate if the child’s mother was there.

Park officials notified the Butler County Children and Youth Services agency about their findings.