Dramatic video captured the moment a mother grabbed her 1-year-old daughter from a witness who saw the child fall out of a moving car in Hialeah, in an incident that led to a missing child alert before the girl was found safe.
The bizarre incident unfolded Thursday night when Hialeah Police said the little girl, who was a passenger in her mother's car, somehow fell out.
A concerned witness "who observed the child alone, crying, and appearing injured, immediately intervened," police said.
The witness started calling police, but while she was on the phone, 29-year-old Tasshay Mills, the girl's mother, allegedly came back and "forcibly took the child from the witness, and left without providing further information," police said.
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A Ring camera captured the encounter and showed the witness holding the girl while calling police.
"Hey, are you okay? It's okay, I'm gonna sit down. Oh my God," the woman says in the video. "Hello? I need you to come, I need you to come."
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Moments later, two vehicles pull up and the mother gets out of one vehicle and approaches the witness.
"I'm not giving you this baby!" the witness yells.
"That is my baby!" the mother responds as she grabs the child and walks away.
"Oh my God! I need you guys to come, she f---ing snatched the baby out of my hands!" the witness says into her phone.
Police said they tried to get Mills to return to the scene or allow the child to receive medical help, but she failed to do so.
On Friday morning, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued a missing child alert for the girl.
The girl and Mills were eventually found later Friday at an unspecified location and the girl was taken to Nicklaus Children's Hospital. The girl's condition was unknown.
"We're all very happy, very joyful, but we don’t know exactly what her injuries were and that’s why she's on her way to Nicklaus Children's Hospital," Hialeah Police spokesperson Scarlett Hernandez said.
Mills was in custody, but no charges have been filed yet.
Records obtained by NBC6 show it's not the first time Mills has been arrested. In 2020, she was convicted of punching her mother and launching at her with a kitchen knife.
However, recent records show Mills was a victim of domestic violence this past May after the father of her children stomped on her face. Mills requested and a judge granted for her ex to stay away from her family.
Family and friends of Mills told NBC6 that she loves her kids and isn't a bad parent, but they believe she was around the wrong people.
They told NBC6 the 1-year-old was going to be with her grandmother Friday night.
