A 60-year-old Idaho man has been charged with simple assault for allegedly slapping a toddler aboard a flight from the Twin Cities to Atlanta.

In an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, FBI Special Agent Daron Cheney said Joe Rickey Hundley of Hayden, Idaho, slapped the 2-year-old boy during a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul on Feb. 8.

The child’s mother, 33-year-old Jessica Bennett of Minneapolis, told authorities the boy was crying as the plane prepared for landing.

Bennett said Hundley was sitting next to her and slapped the boy in his face, causing a scratch under his right eye. She said Hundley used a racial epithet while demanding her to quiet the boy.

Hundley “told her to shut that (‘N word’) baby up,” Cheney said in the affidavit. “Ms. Bennett received assistance from several people on the plane, including male passenger Todd Wooten,” Cheney said.

Wooten was seated rows in front of Bennett and said he came to help after he heard derogatory language being used behind him, according to court documents. Bennett said the infant began crying louder after he was slapped.

Authorities said Hundley was not taken into custody.

“We think that it is important to let the case develop, and we’ll see how it all comes out,” Hundley’s attorney Marcia Shein said Friday, Feb. 15.

Bennett could not be reached for comment.