Police in Michigan responded to a 911 call this weekend just in time to stop a mother from allegedly drowning her two-year-old child, according to court documents and disturbing body camera footage of the incident.
Officers responded to the home in Albion, Michigan after receiving a call that included sounds of children screaming, the Albion Department of Public Safety said in a statement. Upon arrival, they kicked in a locked bathroom door and allegedly found a woman, Jessica Edward-Ricks, 35, holding her two-year-old child underwater in a bathtub.
Police then took the child from the woman and performed CPR on it in the home’s living room.
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“After giving a few quick breaths, the child coughed up water and began breathing on her own,” the department's statement said. The child also received stab wounds on its chest and throat.
The child may owe its survival to its oldest sibling. According to accounts Edward-Ricks’ children shared with investigators, the 15-year-old child wrestled a knife from the mother’s grip as she tried to stab her 4-year-old sibling, local TV station WOOD reported.
When Edward-Ricks then allegedly took the 2-year-old child into the bathroom, the teenager, who also called 911, fled with her siblings and sought out a neighbor’s help.
Harrowing body camera footage obtained by Law & Crime captured the moment officers allegedly pulled the child away from Edward-Ricks and performed CPR.
“Breathe for me baby, come on,” one of the officers says as the child begins to cry.
The four-year-old was also cut, according to the police department, and authorities suspected both the four-year-old and the two-year-old had ingested some type of “cleaning liquid.”
Both of the children are in stable condition after authorities transported them to a hospital, police said.
WOOD reported that a court arraigned Edward-Ricks by video on Tuesday on charges including assault with intent to murder and first-degree child abuse. Her bond was set at $500,000.
