Officers save 2-year-old girl being drowned in bathtub by mother with only seconds to spare, police say – Law Officer

ALBION, Mich. – A Michigan mother was taken into custody last weekend after police said they caught the woman in the act of trying to drown her 2-year-old daughter in the bathtub.

Jessica Deirdre Edward-Ricks, 35, a mother of four children, was identified as the suspect who tried to drown her toddler. She is also accused of stabbing the 2-year-old girl as well as her 4-year-old son and making both drink some kind of toxic cleaning fluid.

Edward-Ricks was arrested by the Albion Department of Public Safety on Saturday. She was subsequently charged with two counts of assault with intent to murder, four counts of child abuse, and one count of simple assault, Law&Crime reported, citing court records.

The Albion Department of Public Safety provided the following details in a news release:

On Saturday, June 24, 2023 at 10:30 AM, ADPS and the Calhoun County Sheriff’s department responded to a 911 call with children screaming and asking for help on Bluestem Ct in Albion. When officers arrived they heard commotion from behind a locked door in the residence. An ADPS officer kicked the door open and found a 35-year-old woman holding a two-year-old under the water in the bathtub. The ADPS officer quickly grabbed the two-year-old from the woman and took her into the living room, and began CPR. After giving a few quick breaths, the child coughed up water and began breathing on her own. The Sheriff’s Deputy detained the woman. After further investigation, it appears the 35-year-old woman is the mother of 4 children in the house.

The two-year-old girl had two stab wounds to the chest and throat, and the four-year-old boy had cuts. It is also believed both the two-year-old and four-year-old had possibly ingested some cleaning fluid. It does not appear that the eight-year-old or the 15-year-old girl had any injuries. The 15-year-old was the one who called 911 for help. The mother was taken into custody and transported to the hospital as she may have also ingested cleaning fluid.

The two-year-old and the four-year-old were transported to the hospital in Jackson and later flown to Ann Arbor and were last known to be in stable condition.

Bodycam video of the law enforcement response shows the sheriff’s deputy saying “boot it,” just before the ADPS officer kicks in the door of the bathroom. The footage then shows an adult female in the bathtub hovering over the small child, Law&Crime reported.

Albion Police Chief Scott Kipp praised the heroic actions of both ADPS Lt. Phipps and Deputy Winder of the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department. Their swift response and decisive actions saved the life of the two-year-old child and rescued other children from abuse.

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