Mom with baby in her arms punched by California cop: video

Distressing body camera video shows the moment a Los Angeles county deputy punched a young mother twice in the face as she held her 3-week-old baby during a traffic stop.

Just-released police body camera footage from the July 13, 2022 altercation shows cops pulling over a car driving without headlights packed with five women inside and three babies — not in car seats.

Police claimed to smell alcohol on the driver and saw the babies being held in their mothers’ arms during the traffic stop just before midnight in Palmdale, northeast of Los Angeles.

The video shows one woman asking the deputies if she could drive home to pick up a car seat for her baby.

A female deputy tells her: “We’re past that point. We didn’t realize you had that many kids. You guys each have a kid in the backseat without car seats.”

When the woman refuses to hand over her child, the deputy asks: “So do you want me to grab the baby or are you going to hand the baby over nicely?”

The woman begins tearfully pleading with the cops not to take her baby, but the deputies are implacable, with one of them kneeling next to her and saying: “I don’t want to have to snatch her and have my partners grab your arms. That’s the last thing I want to do. But we’re going to take the baby one way or another and I don’t want to be rude about it.”

One of the deputies then grabs the woman’s arms while another forcibly removes her baby.

The deputies then turn their attention to another woman standing with her 3-week-old baby in her arms.

As they try to talk her into handing over the baby to them, the mom exclaims: “Y’all are not taking my baby. You’re going to have to shoot me dead to take my baby from my arms. I’m not about to let you take my baby.”

As she struggles with the deputies, a male officer punches her twice in the face, after which the mom is placed in handcuffs.

“You punched me, bro!” the mom cries out. She repeatedly yells, “You’re wrong!” while she is placed in handcuffs.

The driver was arrested for driving under the influence, driving on a suspended license and child endangerment. The four women in the car were held on suspicion of child endangerment.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna released the body camera footage Wednesday, citing the need for transparency to foster public trust and addressing two separate use-of-force incidents at a press conference.

Luna said he found the mom’s punching “completely unacceptable.”

The sheriff said he has sent the case to the county district attorney’s office, which will decide whether to file criminal charges against the deputy.

The FBI also was looking into the incident.

The deputy who punched the mom has been taken off field duty, according to Luna.

He has not been identified.

“I believe this is an isolated incident committed by an individual that will be held accountable,” the sheriff added.

Last week, Luna said two deputies had been pulled from field duty after a video emerged of a deputy in Lancaster tackling a woman while she filmed a man being handcuffed and pepper-sprayed in the face in late June.

In both cases, Luna, who took over the sheriff’s department in December, said he had only recently learned of the incidents.

Although the sheriff said state law prevents him from revealing specific disciplinary actions against deputies, he has said those involved in improper use of force could face anything from additional training to days off or firing.