By Jessica Schladebeck
New York Daily News
MARION COUNTY, Fla. — A sheriff’s deputy body camera footage captured the moment a woman, reportedly high on drugs, dropped an infant while running through traffic on a Florida highway.
Kayla Morgan, who was charged with aggravated child abuse and resisting arrest, told investigators she believed that “a monster was trying to suck her blood” when she fled from law enforcement, according to WESH-TV.
Marion County Sheriff’s deputies earlier this week responded to reports of a woman running through traffic with a baby in her arms, near the area of Highway 315 and Highway 40. Video from the scene shows the 23-year-old zigzagging through traffic on foot while officers attempt to calm her down.
“You’re not in trouble, come here,” the off-screen deputy can be heard saying. “Don’t run in front traffic.”
In her race to the side of the highway, Morgan can be seen losing hold of the child in her arms, who tumbles head first into the ground. A bystander with a flash light is quick to scoop up the wailing child and hand it over to an officer.
Deputies said the infant was left with a skull fracture and taken to a nearby hospital for further treatment and observation.
Responding officers repeatedly warned Morgan they would use Tasers, though in the end they managed to arrest her without much use of force.
During an interview with investigators, Morgan admitted to taking both methamphetamine and the drug Molly over the course of the last three days. While she had little memory of the highway incident, she believed in her drug haze that a monster was trying to attack her.
It’s unclear whether the baby she dropped is her own child or someone else’s.