Mom Slammed After Viral Video Shows Her Infant Son Crawling Into Busy Street
A mother has been charged with Endangering the Welfare of a Child after her 9-month-old baby boy was found by strangers crawling in the middle of a very busy street in Utica, New York.
A video posted to Facebook shows the infant in the roadway unattended and it’s caught the attention of police. The video also shows several people who don’t know the baby or his mother tending to and removing him from harm’s way. Toward the end you can hear a woman running up yelling “That’s my baby? Oh my god!”
That mother has been identified has 27-year-old Ledrika E. Ford. In a statement released Saturday morning (March 10), Utica Police say Ford told officers that she and a relative were not sure how her young child ended up in the street.
"She advised officers that the infant was secured in the rear of a vehicle that she was in when they left a location on Bleecker St. A short time later, she looked to the back seat and found that the child was not there. They immediately returned to the area of Pellettieri Ave. and Bleecker St. where they located her child."
The child was evaluated at a local hospital and Child Protective Services were notified. Subsequently, two Utica Police officers along with two workers from Oneida County Child Protective Services met with Ladrika Ford on Saturday afternoon for about two hours. Authorities then decided to remove the nine-month-old baby and Ford’s two other young children. The mother was heard weeping as the cars with her kids inside drove away.
Ladrika Ford is due back in court on Friday, March 23. See video, as well as reaction in the comments, of what went down below.