If this is a habit with him, you are doing the right thing. If it came out of the blue, I would like to tell you something from my own past.
I was about nine (I am 50-ish now). I was being a right little shit, I can tell you. My dear mother, the kindest, most loyal, most supportive woman in the world, kicked me. Not something she had ever done before, or since, and even then I knew it was out of character and that she must have been at the end of her tether.
It was never mentioned again, has never bothered me, and today she is at the centre of our lives, and her grand-children's lives. She lives with us - that's how close we are - and dh and I are very glad to have her.
The thought of her NOT being part of her lives, of being denied access to us because she might, just might, have kicked one of us again, and having police / ss breathing down her neck for the rest of her life, is ludicrous and horrifying. I would have been SO much the poorer for it I just can't tell you. The thought of a bunch of people saying 'save the hens, she might kill them out of spite' - nothing could have been less likely.
If you dp is an abusive wanker who has done and will do this sort of thing again, you are doing the right thing. If it is something that has shocked him as much as you, and you previously had a happy and loving family relationship,please give some thought to what your children, and you, and he will lose forever if you cut him out of your lives rather than working towards a solution.
I apologise if there is a back history here that I don't know, and I expect I'll be flamed. But I thought this was worth saying.