CHICOPEE – Police arrested a 21-year-old Call Street man Friday night after he allegedly shoved a slice of hot pizza, steaming hot from a microwave oven, into a 6-year-old girl's face, causing first- and second-degree burns.

James Vincent Grass, of 24 Call St., first floor, denied the charges against him during his arraignment in District Court. He was released in lieu of $500 personal surety and ordered to return to court on June 12 for a pre-trial hearing.

Officer Terry Dec, in his report on the incident, stated he was summoned to the home at 24 Call St., shortly after 7 p.m., for a report of an assault and battery. The girl’s mother, who met Dec outside the home, said that she had arrived there to pick the girl up and saw that she was holding a towel on her chin.

When the mother asked what happened, the girl stated that Grass “threw a piece of pizza in her face,” Dec wrote in his report which was filed in support of court documents.

Dec said the girl, who was sitting in the mother’s car, was holding a cold wet towel to her chin where she had a popped blister about the size of a quarter.

The girl told Dec she was in the kitchen when the suspect put a slice of pizza in the microwave to heat and then left the room. The girl said that she stopped the microwave because the slice was starting to steam.

That angered the Grass when he returned back to the kitchen and he began yelling at the girl, Dec wrote.

When the girl explained that the pizza had started to steam, Grass took the slice out of the microwave, held it up to her, asked “Do you think this is done?” Then he shoved the pizza into the girl’s face, according to Dec’s report.

The suspect then asked the girl “Is that hot enough?” Dec wrote.

The mother refused medical treatment for her daughter at the scene and said she would seek her own treatment at a hospital. The mother later told police the girl suffered first-degree burns and the beginning stages of second-degree burns.

Police found Grass a short time later on Ferry Street and he told officers that the girl had asked to smell the pizza and then “pushed her face into it,” according to Dec’s report,

Grass told police he tried to find a towel to wipe off the hot cheese off the girl’s chin but could not find one, Dec wrote. He said he texted a friend to see if they had ice and then left the house to get it.

While Grass was being booked, police learned that he had an active restraining order, issued on Dec. 13, that had ordered him, in part, to vacate 24 Call St.

Grass was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (hot pizza), reckless endangerment of a child and violation of the restraining order.

A mandated child abuse report was sent to the state Department of Children and Families.