Two Florida women charged after allegedly tossing baby ‘like a toy’
Two Florida women have been accused of drunkenly tossing a baby back and forth “like a toy” outside a bar — and possibly breaking his arm.
Brianna Lafoe, 19, and Sierrah Newell, 20, were arrested about 1 a.m. Thursday after police responded to the Coyote Ugly Saloon on Seabreeze Boulevard in Daytona Beach, WESH reported.
A witness who shot video of the shocking incident told police that the two sloshed women were throwing the child and flipping him upside down outside the watering hole, according to the outlet, which cited an arrest affidavit.
They tossed the baby back and forth “like a toy” over a distance of about 4 feet, according to the document.
Newell, who was on crutches, threatened to hit bystanders who pleaded for the women to stop abusing the child, police said.
“She started throwing the baby up and down a little too aggressively,” witness Jahada Rasheed told WESH.
While clutching the baby, Newell walked up to the person recording her and allegedly struck her.
“Then she put the baby upside down. It was like hold up. This is getting way too far,” Rasheed told the outlet.
Lafoe, meanwhile, also flipped the baby upside down by his ankles and tried to hit the woman with one of Newell’s crutches, according to the affidavit.
She also “actually and intentionally struck (the woman who was initially recording) on the right arm with an open hand,” police said in the affidavit, according to Fox 35 Orlando.
The baby was taken to Halifax Health “with red marks on his back.” An X-ray revealed a mark on his arm that “could indicate a broken arm,” the affidavit states.
The redacted document did not reveal whom the baby belonged to, but Newell’s mother was at the scene during the incident and the Department of Children and Families is investigating whether she can take custody of the child, according to Fox 35.
The child has been released from the hospital, police said.
Lafoe and Newell were charged with felony child abuse. Lafoe also was charged with battery and held on $3,500 bond. Newell has reportedly been released.
“It really breaks your heart to see a little one go through something like that,” Shawn Knapp, a manager at the nearby Crazy John’s Recreational Cannabis store, told the outlet.
He said he believes the incident would have turned out worse had bystanders not intervened.
“That’s what we need in all communities, right?” he told Fox 35. “We need people to watch out for each other no matter what age.”