Albion police release bodycam footage of life-saving efforts to rescue children

Police have released dramatic bodycam footage that captured the moments officers stormed a house to find a mother holding her 2-year-old daughter underwater in the bathtub.

The 35-year-old woman has been taken into police custody and is expected to be charged Tuesday.

Two children living in the house are in the hospital being treated for their injuries.

Police received a call at about 10:30 a.m. Saturday from the woman’s 15-year-old daughter. During the call, children could be heard screaming in the background.

“I know it was pretty frantic and there was crying in the background and screaming, and she was saying that her mom was trying to kill her sister,” said Albion Chief of Public Safety Scott Kipp.

An Albion police officer and a Calhoun County Sheriff’s deputy responded to the 911 call. When they arrived, police said they found the mother and two younger children had ingested cleaning fluid and the 2-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy were also suffering stab wounds.

As a result of their quick response, police are being credited with saving lives, and it was all caught on their body-worn cameras. Kipp said both officers were nearby when the call came in, which is why they were able to respond so quickly.

Kipp said when police arrived at the home, located on Bluestem Court, they had to kick in a locked door, where they found a 35-year-old woman holding her 2-year-old daughter’s head underwater in the bathtub.

The child was not breathing after being pulled from the water.

“They immediately pulled the child from the bathtub and began performing CPR and were able to revive her rather quickly,” Kipp said.

Four children were in the home at the time. Paramedics took the 2-year-old girl and the 4-year-old boy to a hospital, where they are being treated for stab wounds and ingesting cleaning chemicals.

“The 2-year-old and the 4-year-old were transported to Allegiance Hospital in Jackson, and then they were flown to Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, but the last I heard, they are in stable condition and doing well,” Kipp said.

He added that officers had been sent to the home several times for domestic violence issues, where the mother was the victim. They said this was the time they’d seen violence against the children.

The mother will be charged Tuesday.