Long Beach police arrested a man on suspicion of pepper-spraying a woman and a 7-month-old boy she was holding early this morning, according to authorities.

Police said the incident occurred around 12:35 a.m. in the 5500 block of Atlantic Avenue during a landlord-tenant dispute, although authorities didn’t detail how the dispute escalated into the pepper-spraying.

After talking to the woman, police said they took the suspected attacker into custody on suspicion of assault, unlawful possession of teargas and child cruelty.

Authorities identified him as Ronnie Reed, 58. He was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, police said.

Jeremiah Dobruck is executive editor of the Long Beach Post where he oversees all day-to-day newsroom operations. In his time working as a journalist in Long Beach, he’s won numerous awards for his investigative reporting and editing. Before coming to the Post in 2018, he wrote for publications including the Press-Telegram, Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. Reach him at [email protected] or @jeremiahdobruck on Twitter.