Video: Police Kick Down Door to Catch Mother in the Middle of Horrific Act, Save Child Just in Time
Michigan law enforcement officers kicked in a bathroom door Saturday to rescue a toddler child allegedly being drowned by her mother, according to local news reports.
In heart-pounding bodycam footage shared by news stations, including WWMT-TV in Kalamazoo, an officer grabbed the child from the water and performed CPR on her, imploring her to “Breathe, baby!” until she was revived.
The toddler and a 4-year-old sibling had also been cut or stabbed, according to the report.
The police came to the home in the town of Albion around 10:30 a.m. in response to a 911 call from a teenager “who reportedly screamed that their mother planned to kill her own two-year-old daughter,” WXMI-TV in Grand Rapids reported.
The bodycam video shared by WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids included a dispatcher informing an Albion public safety officer behind the wheel of a squad car that a caller reported her mother had just killed her sister.
“She’s advising there’s a knife involved,” the dispatcher said.
Moments later, while the officer was still en route to the scene, the dispatcher announced that the caller reported the mother had stabbed the sister.
Upon arrival, the officer ran toward the house with his gun drawn, following a Calhoun County sheriff’s deputy. Voices were heard screaming for help as he came through the door.
Finding no activity in the rooms, the two officers banged on a closed bathroom door, then kicked it in.
The next scene, showing the woman holding the child underwater, has been blurred to protect the victim’s identity, but the officer was heard shouting “No! What’s going on?” before he pulled the limp child from the tub.
“Stabbed in the throat,” he said as he carried the little girl a short distance before laying her on the floor and starting CPR. The officer paused briefly to call the dispatcher for medical assistance.
“We’ve got a child with a stab wound in the chest,” he gasped. “Need medical priority one.”
“Wake up, baby,” he said to the child, then added, to the dispatcher, “The mother was drowning it in the bathtub when we found it.”
“She’s gone,” someone was heard whispering, before the officer again yelled at the girl, “Breathe, breathe!”
After about a minute of CPR, the girl began to cry.
WARNING: The following video contains images that some may find disturbing.
A police spokesman told WWMT that the two young children and the woman had also ingested “some sort of cleaning fluid.”
The mother, identified by WXMI as Jessica Edward-Ricks, 35, was arrested and charged with two counts of assault with intent to murder and two counts of child abuse.
She was arraigned in Calhoun County Court in Battle Creek on Tuesday, where attorney magistrate Amber L. Straub ordered her to undergo a mental health assessment.
WXMI reported her bond was set at $500,000.
Albion Police Chief Scott Kipp said the children were in stable condition.
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