2 workers on leave over video showing boy wrenched from mom's arms

<p>Two employees have been placed on leave following an incident captured on viral cellphone video that shows a small child being wrenched from his mother's arms at a social services center in Boerum Hill.</p>

News 12 Staff

Dec 10, 2018, 9:48 PM

Updated 1,964 days ago

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Two employees have been placed on leave following an incident captured on viral cellphone video that shows a small child being wrenched from his mother's arms at a social services center in Boerum Hill.
The Brooklyn Public Defender's Office says the mother, Jazmine Headley, had taken a day off work to go to the center. She was trying to determine why the child day care benefit she had received for her 1-year-old son had been cut off.
The defender's office says Headley, 23, was sitting on the floor because there weren't enough chairs in the busy center. She was asked to move multiple times as the situation escalated, and eventually security called 911.
The cellphone video, taken by others in the waiting room, appears to show police officers trying to yank Headley's toddler son out of her arms while she is on the floor screaming, "You're hurting my son, you're hurting my son!"
Two human rights administration officers who were involved in the incident have been placed on leave and will be put on modified duty pending an investigation.
Headley was arrested and charged with resisting arrest, acting in a manner injurious to a child, endangering the welfare of a child and trespassing.
Borough President Eric Adams says Headley did not receive professionalism or respect from the police.
The NYPD has called the video "troubling" and says the incident is under review.
The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association says the event would have unfolded differently if those at the scene had complied with the officers' orders.
Headley has been jailed, but the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office says it is in connection to a separate warrant from New Jersey. The office says it is reaching out to authorities there to have Headley released as they investigate the incident.


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