Charges dropped against mom whose baby was pried from her arms by police

UPDATE 3:30 p.m. EST Dec. 11: The New York Times reported that charges have been dropped against a mother whose 1-year-old son was pried from her arms by police while she was arrested.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez dropped the charges, which included resisting arrest, acting in a manner injurious to a child, obstructing governmental administration and criminal trespass.

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"Like everyone who watched the arrest of Jazmine Headley, I was horrified by the violence depicted in the video and immediately opened an investigation into this case," Gonzalez said in a statement, according to WPIX. "It is clear to me that this incident should have been handled differently."

The Times reported that Jazmine Headley, 23, was still at Rikers Island in connected to an unrelated warrant related to proceedings from an unrelated credit card fraud case in New Jersey.

Lisa Schreibersdorf, the executive director of Brooklyn Defender Services, said in a radio interview Tuesday that a warrant had been issued for Headley after she didn’t show up for a court date in New Jersey.

“She was a Brooklyn person, and doesn’t have any experience in New Jersey, and honestly, didn’t even know how to get back there, what to do,” Schreibersdorf said.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio praised Gonzalez's decision.

“This morning my office spoke to the Brooklyn DA about dropping the charges against Ms. Headley,” he tweeted Tuesday morning. “I applaud the DA’s decision to do so. She should be reunited with her child as soon as possible.”

Original report:

A disturbing video of a tussle between police and a New York woman trying to hold onto her 1-year-old baby as she sat on the floor at a Brooklyn food assistance center, WPIX reported.

The Friday arrest of Jazmine Headley, 23, caught on cellphone video, has sparked anger and calls for an investigation, while officials with the New York Police Department are calling the video "troubling," WABC reported.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams called for all charges against Headley to be dropped, the television station reported.

“The department endangered the child, not the mother,” Adams said at a news conference Monday. “Clearly our police department, the most well-trained department in the country, should be able to de-escalate a situation with a baby and the mother. I think the best way of telling her she could not sit on the floor was to get her a chair.”

Headley remains in custody and faces charges that include acting in a manner injurious to a child and resisting arrest. The child is in the care of a family member, WCBS reported.

According to Headley's mother, Jacqueline Jenkins, her daughter went to the Human Resources Administration building in Brooklyn. Jenkins said Headley was going to ask for day care vouchers for her son so she could work as a cleaner, WABC reported.

The building was crowded and there were no chairs, so Headley sat on the floor with her son, WPIX reported.

Officers were called after Headley allegedly refused to leave, despite requests from HRA peace officers, police said.

Headley "was then informed by police numerous times to leave the location, and she refused," WPIX reported.

Officers forcibly removed Headley’s baby and handcuffed her, according to the video.

The footage is "hard to watch," City Council Speaker Corey Johnson told WPIX.

"I was devastated to see something like that happen to my daughter and grandson, and how this officer yanking on my grandson to get him out of my daughter's arms," Jenkins told WABC.

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