Michigan mother Jessica Edward-Ricks is accused of trying to drown her child in the bathtub. (Calhoun County Sheriff's Office and ADPS bodycam screenshot)
A 35-year-old mother in Michigan was arrested over the weekend after police allegedly caught her in the act of attempting to drown her 2-year-old daughter in her bathtub in a horrific incident that was captured on police body camera footage. Jessica Deirdre Edward-Ricks was taken into custody on Saturday and charged with two counts of assault with intent to murder, four counts of child abuse, and one count of simple assault, records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Edward-Ricks, a mother of four kids, 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 liquid.
According to a press release from the Albion Department of Public Safety, ADPS officers and deputies with the Calhoun County Sheriff's Department at about 10:30 a.m. on June 24 responded to a 911 call at a residence located on Bluestem Court, which is about 90 miles west of Detroit. Police said that the caller was Edward-Ricks' 15-year-old daughter who could be heard "screaming and asking for help."
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders entered the home and "heard a commotion" coming from behind a locked door to the downstairs bathroom 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 release states. "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."
Body camera footage of the incident shows the sheriff's deputy yelling "boot it," just before the ADPS officer kicks in the door of the bathroom. The footage then shows an adult female in the bathtub hunched over what appears to be a small child.
"What's going on?" one of the officers says as he pulls the child from the tub and carries her into the living room and says that the child has "a stab wound to the chest," adding, "the mother was drowning it in the bathtub when we found it."
"Wake up baby," the officer says as he begins CPR chest compressions and repeats, "Breathe for me, baby."
The officer continues with the chest compressions for nearly a full minute before the baby suddenly begins to cry, the footage shows.
In addition to the stab wound to her chest, police said the toddler also suffered a stab wound to the throat. Her 4-year-old brother also had multiple slash wounds. Two other children, ages 8 and 15, were also found in the house. Neither appeared to have suffered any injuries.
Officers took Edward-Ricks into custody and transported her to a local hospital because they believed "she may have also ingested cleaning fluid." Her two youngest children were also taken to a local hospital and later airlifted to a children's hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for more specialized care. They were both said to be in stable condition as of Sunday.
Edward-Ricks is currently being held in the Calhoun County Correctional Facility on $500,000 bond, records show. She appeared in court on Tuesday where she was represented by a public defender and entered a plea of not guilty to the aforementioned charges, Grand Rapids, Michigan ABC affiliate WZZM reported.
The Calhoun County Public Defender's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime.
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