A 24-year-old man in New Mexico faces accusations of deliberately smashing a glass beer bottle over an 8-year-old girl’s head and slashing her neck at a dining establishment, reportedly because she was “in his way.” The incident left the child hospitalized, requiring over a dozen stitches.

Last week, a grand jury in Bernalillo County indicted Nichalas San Souci on charges of child abuse resulting in severe bodily injury, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, as announced by authorities.

According to a news release from the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office, the incident took place on April 25, 2025, at Saggios, a restaurant in the 100 block of Cornell Drive.

The victim was “looking at a waterfall” inside the restaurant when “San Souci hit the child over the head with a beer bottle then sliced her neck with the broken bottle,” prosecutors said. The child was “seriously injured” and authorities said she needed to get 19 stitches.

The victim and San Souci did not know each other prior to the incident, police said.

The victim’s father, Britton Rose, provided additional details about what took place in an interview with Albuquerque ABC affiliate KOAT.

Rose said that when he found his daughter in the restaurant, she was “soaking wet.” She then explained that someone had “come up from behind and broke a beer bottle over her head.”

According to Rose, the popular restaurant was crowded and there was a long line when he and his family arrived, so they knew it “was going to be a while” before they were seated at a table. As they waited, he said his wife and daughter went to walk around and look at the murals and other decorations inside the establishment.

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“That’s when I heard my wife from across the restaurant yelling, ‘No, no, stop,’” Rose told the station. “And then I knew something was going on with my family.”

According to court documents obtained by the station, after breaking the bottle on the child’s head, San Souci then “stabbed” and “sliced” the victim with what remained of the bottle. He allegedly told authorities that he attacked the 8-year-old “because she got in my way.”

After allegedly attacking his daughter, Rose told the station that San Souci pulled out a weapon.

“Later, after our original altercation, he did stand back up, and he pulled out a knife. Which at first I maybe thought he was going to use against me, but quickly I could tell that his intention diverted, and he was looking back over towards my daughter. So I wanted to make sure that I could get in between him and her.”

District Attorney Sam Bregman called the incident “so, so disturbing,” adding that San Souci could face decades in prison for his alleged crimes.

“The individual was indicted for first-degree child abuse, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon,” he told KOAT. “He’s facing 22 and a half years. If he’s convicted of that child abuse, that is mandatory 18 years.”

San Souci is currently being held in Bernalillo County Jail without bond, records show.