Charges Dropped Against Mom Who Had Baby Ripped From Arms

The woman whose 18-month-old son was violently yanked from her arms by NYPD officers has had the charges against her in that incident dropped. Jazmine Headley was arrested in Brooklyn Friday after a security guard at a city social services office asked her to move and she allegedly refused; the woman who recorded the incident (in a video that went viral, bringing attention to the case) said Headley and her son had been sitting on the floor because all the seats were taken. Police were called and a struggle ensued in which Headley's toddler son was taken from her. She was charged with resisting arrest, acting in a manner injurious to a child, obstructing governmental administration, and trespassing, but the Brooklyn DA dismissed all those charges Tuesday. Headley initially remained jailed at New York City's Rikers Island on an unrelated New Jersey warrant, but later Tuesday a judge ordered her released, the AP reports.

According to the New York Times, the executive director of Brooklyn Defender Services explained the New Jersey case Tuesday, saying Headley was in a car with four people when it was pulled over; police allegedly found stolen credit cards inside the car. Though Headley was quickly released and had only been charged with a misdemeanor, she couldn't get back to New Jersey for a court date and a warrant was issued for her arrest. She was at the government office Friday in an attempt to get childcare benefits reinstated for her son, who was with her at the time because his daycare had just informed her the city had stopped paying his fee. The 23-year-old initially remained jailed on the question of whether she would be extradited to New Jersey; instead, she was expected to be released Tuesday but must appear in court Wednesday for the credit card case. (A woman who says she killed in self-defense when she was a teen was sentenced to 51 years.)