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NYPD Reviewing ‘Troubling’ Video Of Officers Prying Baby From Mom’s Arms

Posted at 1:33 PM, Dec 10, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-10 14:06:31-05

NEW YORK (NBC) – The New York Police Department and others are investigating after a “troubling” video showing officers trying to pry a 1-year-old from his mother’s arms at a Brooklyn social services office.

“They’re hurting my son! They’re hurting my son,” the woman, Jazmine Headley, is heard screaming in the video posted Friday on Facebook.

In it, Headley, with her back on the floor, struggles to hang on to her baby as several officers try to rip him away. The scene quickly escalated as bystanders surround the chaos and shout over each other.

 

“Oh my God! Look what they’re doing to her,” people yell on the video, which has been viewed more than 200,000 times.

At least one officer pulled out what appeared to be a stun gun, and pointed it toward the crowd before holding it inches from the Headley’s face.

The NYPD said in a statement that the video was “troubling,” and they were reviewing it along with any other video they could find from the incident.

Officers were called to the Human Resources Administration office in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn Friday after staff had made unsuccessful attempts to remove a Headley “due to her disorderly conduct towards others, and for obstructing the hallway,” according to the statement.

 

“HRA peace officers brought the woman to the floor,” and officers tried to arrest her, but she resisted, the NYPD said.

Headley, 23, now faces charges of resisting arrest, acting in a manner injurious to a child, obstructing governmental administration and criminal trespass.

A spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney said they did not request bail from Headley, and she is being held on a separate warrant in New Jersey.

 

The woman who posted the video to Facebook wrote that Headley sat on the floor of the office with her child because all of the seats were taken. A security guard who told her to get off the floor eventually ended up calling police, the woman wrote.

The child has been placed with a family member.