Footage Shows NYC Officers Ripping Infant from Mother's Arms (+Video)
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – NYPD officers were caught on video yanking a baby from his screaming mother — as another footage showed her clinging to the boy’s shirt with her teeth.
PD Commissioner James O’Neill ordered an investigation Monday into the officer’s behavior with the woman and said they will review cellphone and police body-cam footage of the incident — and piece together what happened.
Headley, a 23-year-old single mom, was at the center that day because she learned that a child-care benefit had lapsed, and she brought along her son, Damone Buckman III.
She arrived at 9 a.m. to find the building packed, and was forced to stand for nearly four hours with the 17-month-old because there were no open chairs, according to Lisa Schreibersdorf of Brooklyn Defenders, which is representing Headley, the New York Post reported.
When Headley sat down on the floor to rest her legs, a security officer for the city’s Human Resources Administration — which oversees the site — ordered her to either get up or leave the building.
Headley refused and HRA officers called the cops. But before they arrived, the guards “initiated physical contact” with Headley, a law-enforcement source told The Post.
When officers did arrive, the situation only became more tense.
As horrified onlookers screamed and recorded the chaos on their cellphones, cops and at least one HRA officer fought to wrest Damone from his mother’s arms, the troubling video shows.
“You’re hurting my son!” Headley repeatedly shrieked as she clung to Damone, in one desperate moment clenching the tot’s shirt between her teeth as NYPD and HRA officers tried to pull her away.
One NYPD officer at one point pulled out a stun gun, though it was not discharged.
When the dust settled, Headley was cuffed and charged with resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and acting in a manner injurious to a child.
Headley remains behind bars on Rikers Island because of a New Jersey arrest warrant for failing to appear on a credit-card fraud charge in July 2017.
A judge also issued an order of protection barring Headley from seeing her son, given the nature of the charges.
HRA announced late Monday that two peace officers involved in the incident are on leave, and would be placed on modified duty pending its own investigation.