A woman is accused of hitting her child’s foster mother with a truck in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, California, on October 1.
The disturbing incident over custody occurred outside a Target store near Capitol Drive and Gaffey Street, ABC 7 reported Saturday.
Thirty-nine-year-old Miesha Scott arrived at the location to meet the child’s foster parents and transfer custody, law enforcement said. But the exchange did not remain peaceful for long.
The foster father dialed 911 for help because the woman allegedly had the child and was about to flee the scene.
When the dispatcher asked if the woman was the mother, the man said yes. Officers were then able to make contact with Scott who told them she was upset.
“So you keep telling me to calm down … that’s why I said, ‘Can you call somebody that can negotiate all of our situation so we all be fair, so no one cause no more commotion,” she said in body camera footage of the incident:
Officers eventually took the boy and handed him off to his foster parents. Meanwhile, Scott got back into her truck and appeared to leave the area.
However, the woman turned around, accelerated, then collided with the foster mother. She also nearly hit one of the police officers, a policewoman said in the Los Angeles Police Department’s video.
“As Scott continued to drive away, she encountered another officer who opened fire. A brief chase ensued, but the woman eventually hit a tree at Paseo Del Mar and Pacific and was taken into custody,” the ABC 7 report noted.
The outlet also said she was not shot but was slightly injured to do the wreck, adding the foster mother was not seriously hurt during the incident.
Now, the suspect faces charges consisting of two counts of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon on an officer, and felony evading.
It is important to note that Los Angeles County child welfare agency has reportedly placed some of over 200 foster children in hotels for months at a time despite much criticism, the Los Angeles Times reported in May.
“The county’s decision to house foster children in hotels underscores California’s chronic shortage of families and group homes willing or able to house youths with significant untreated trauma and histories of violence,” the article said.
In January, Christine Stoner-Mertz, who is the CEO of the California Alliance for Child and Family Services, wrote that California must see foster youth as a priority.
“Children in California’s child welfare system had little to no say about the circumstances that brought them into foster care. No budget shortfall, lack of political will or mixed up priorities should further delay support they need to thrive,” she stated.