Woman Arrested Following Report Of Parent Chasing Child In Woodbury; 2 Children Hospitalized
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Authorities in the east metro are investigating an incident early Wednesday morning that ended with two children hurt and a woman in custody.
John Altman, the police commander for Woodbury Public Safety, says officers responded around 12:46 a.m. to the 400 block of Lake View Alcove on a report of a parent chasing a child. Further 911 calls reported screaming in the area.
At the scene, officers found the initial 911 caller and a child believed to be around 6 years old. They also found another child, believed to be younger than 6, lying in the street unresponsive.
Both of the children were brought to Regions Hospital for treatment. The younger child, a girl, is likely in critical condition, Altman said. The older child, a boy, suffered bruising and possibly a broken wrist, neighbors said.
Authorities also encountered a woman who is believed to be the suspect. She was taken into custody. Neighbors say she is the children's mother. No other suspects are being sought, police say.
Neighbor Muna Abdi said that she intervened in the situation, trying to help the children. "There was a child, about six years old, running and his mother was after him," she said
"I tried to protect him from her," she added. "I tried to talk to her to calm the situation down."
Abdi and a couple of other neighbors say they blocked the woman from reaching her son, protecting him early Wednesday morning.
"We stopped her and told her to calm down. She just stood up, stared at us, and went back to the house," said Yordanos Kidane, a neighbor.
Investigators are speaking to witnesses and trying to determine exactly what happened. Altman says police are in the process of obtaining a search warrant to see if anything happened inside a home.
The women in the neighborhood say they don't know much about the mother or her family. They say she's never shown interest in being part of their neighborhood social group.
One woman did say she called police earlier in the year on the mother for harassment like persistently knocking on her door, sometimes for hours.
"Three days straight she hit my door," said Ikran Hassan.
Woodbury police say the mother was booked into the Washington County Jail on Wednesday morning. She is expected to be charged on Thursday.
