A mother whose 18 month-old son was ripped from her arms by police officers last week, was finally released from a Rikers Island jail on Tuesday night. A Brooklyn Supreme Court judge made the decision, calling video of the arrest a “horrific scene that was broadcast all over the United States.”
the 23-years old mother said in an interview published Sunday that she went into "defense mode."
Jazmine Headley took her baby boy to a public benefits office in Brooklyn on a recent Friday to find out why the city had abruptly stopped paying for him to go to daycare while she worked cleaning offices.
officers tried to remove Headley from a crowded Brooklyn social services office, where she had sat on the floor for two hours because of a lack of chairs.
Police were called when she refused a security guard's order to leave. Headley told the Times she was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall and talking to her son, who was in a stroller. She said she refused, pointing out trash and recycling bins against the wall on the other side of her son's stroller.
Headley desperately tried to cling to her son during the altercation, screaming “They’re hurting my son!”
At one point an officer could be seen drawing her Taser and pointing it at the crowd forcing them to back up.
The two security guards have been placed on modified duty. The guard's union president, Gregory Floyd, said they tried to reason with Headley for 40 minutes before police arrived. He said one of the guards was bitten during the tussle.
On Thursday, Headley notified the city that she plans to file a potentially lucrative lawsuit to prevent what happened to her from happening to others.
