A thug punched a 5-year-old boy in the face and attacked an 11-year-old in a Target store in California.

Jeff Hardcastle, 51, has been sentenced to nine years behind bars for the unprovoked and brutal assault, which knocked the youngest boy off his feet.

In the disturbing CCTV footage, the two youngsters were in the video games section when Hardcastle launched his attack.

After he hit the first child, he marched up to the 5-year-old and smacked him in the face, sending him flying across the aisle.

A passer-by ran to the child and grabbed him by one arm and one leg and pulled him away from his attacker.

Officers suspect Hardcastle was on drugs by the way he was behaving.

The video showed him wandering erratically up and down the aisles.

Police were able to corner him behind an electric box outside the store.

Local resident Melvin Goodrum Jr. told CBS Sacramento: “I would have lost it. Physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually lost it.”

Deserie Lisondra was also horrified by the footage: “I really would not contain myself, this is my child, I don’t know you, why would you put your hands on my child?”

The San Joaquin County district attorney sentenced Hardcastle after he pleaded no contest to assault and causing great bodily injury to a minor.

As part of the plea deal, he also pleaded guilty to a violent robbery committed in 2008.