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Video Posted To Facebook Showing NYPD Officers Taking 1-Year-Old From Mother Creates A Stir

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There is outrage over a violent arrest.

The NYPD and city officials are investigating after cellphone video posted online shows police officers yanking a child from his mother's arms at a Brooklyn city agency building, CBS2's Natalie Duddridge reported Sunday night.

Video posted on Facebook shows a mother, 23-year-old Jazmine Headley, holding tightly to her baby son as three NYPD officers try to take the 1-year-old away.

ACS NYPD
Cellphone video shows NYPD officers forcefully taking a 1-year-old child away from his mother during an arrest in Brooklyn. (Photo: CBS2)

Police said they were called after the woman refused to leave a center for government assistance in Boerum Hill.

"I was just so disgusted. I couldn't believe they was doing that to that child. I just couldn't believe it. It was crazy," said Nyashia Ferguson, who shot the cellphone video.

She took it inside the SNAP Center on Bergen Street on Friday afternoon. Ferguson said she and many others had been waiting in line for nearly two hours for food and child daycare services. She said the incident started because there were no chairs left and the mother sat on the ground with her child.

"The security guard, I guess she came over and told her she couldn't sit there. So she's like, 'Where am I going to sit?' She was like I guess you're going to just have to stand. She said, 'Well, I'm not gonna stand with my son,'" Ferguson said. "She was like what is the crime? What did I do wrong? And then it just escalated."

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Authorities said staff and human resources peace officers at the facility told the woman to leave several times because of what they called "disorderly conduct towards other people." But she refused, so police were called, CBS2's Duddridge reported.

When officers arrived, they also asked Headley to leave. When she didn't they attempted to arrest her. They claim she resisted.

The NYPD said Headley refused medical treatment for both herself and her child, who is now in the care of a family member.

The Administration for Children's Services was notified.

Now police and city officials, including City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, are calling for a thorough investigation.

"If they would've just talked to her as a woman, gave her time to calm her self down, then I think it would've went way different. She wouldn't be in jail," Ferguson said.

As for Headley, she faces several charges, including acting in a manner injurious to a child and resisting arrest. She remains in police custody.

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