Mom Caught On Video Smacking Son During Baltimore Riots Says, 'I Just Lost It'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Baltimore woman dubbed "Mother
of the Year" after video caught her going ballistic on her teenage son for taking part in riots talks about why she did it.
Toya Graham spoke exclusively to CBS This Morning Wednesday.
"To see my son come across the street with a rock in his hand, I think at that point, I just lost it," Graham said.
"That whole scene was not safe at all," Graham said.
"I was pretty much just telling him, 'How dare you do this,'" Graham said.
Watch the video that went viral here:
The single mother of six said when she first saw the video of herself, she thought, "'Oh my god, my pastor is going to have a fit.' That's it."
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She said her intention was to keep her 16-year-old son Michael safe since he has been in trouble before.
"I find myself shielding my son on a lot of different incidents where these young kids are shooting each other and a lot of his friends have been killed."
She also told Gayle King she does not feel like a hero mom.
The video has blown-up on social media and many are applauding Graham.
"Somebody could call her and tell her that her son is dead, so I think that was a good thing -- a good mom," mother Lysette Parker told CBS2's Cindy Hsu. "I give her 10 thumbs up."
"If more parents were there and could connect with their kids it would save them," mother Gail Holgate told Hsu.
"I didn't love seeing how violent she was with her son and I thought that the yelling was sort of unsettling, but I can understand why she wouldn't want her son in harm's way," said mother Michelle Foster.
Psychologist Jeffrey Gardere says he never condones violence, but in this case, "It was not about a beating to hurt him, it was about hitting him to grab his attention and maybe put him into the proper consciousness."
While some are calling Graham a hero mom she says she was saving her son and didn't want him to end up like Freddie Gray.
