Michigan police bodycam captures the moment a mother tried to drown her two-year-old child at a home in Albion before stopping her.
35-year-old Jessica Deirdre Edward-Ricks was arrested over the weekend after police allegedly caught her in the act of attempting to drown her daughter in a horrific incident that was captured on video.
Jessica was taken into custody on Saturday and charged with 2 counts of assault with intent to murder, 4 counts of child abuse, and one count of simple assault.
Officers responded quickly to a 911 call they received that included screaming children in the background. Upon arrival, they kicked in a locked bathroom door and allegedly found Jessica holding her two-year-old child underwater in a bathtub.
After performing CPR on the child, the girl 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.
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.