Security cameras in a taxi revealed a mother beating her 10-month-old child in the back seat. The driver changed his destination and drove to the local police station instead, where family members picked up the child, according to Kandu News, a news outlet in China.
The woman, who was unidentified, got into the taxi with her baby in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province on May 21. The driver was alarmed when the passenger turned violent and began hitting her own child. So he drove to the police station.
The police sent the woman to the hospital, and the family later came to pick up the child.
The report claimed that the woman suffers from mental illness which caused her behavior. This is a catch-all explanation made by all Chinese media in the event of a person’s abnormal behavior.
Backseat Beating
Video footage from a camera installed in the driver’s taxi shows the woman getting into the back seat at about 11:40 a.m. on May 21.By 11:47 a.m., the child is laying by her side, crying loudly. The woman backhands the child with her left hand, causing the baby to continue crying.
The driver, named Chen Kun, appears to glance into the rear-view mirror after she makes a swing, and grimaces ever-so slightly.
“She was pressing down on her baby and hitting it,” Chen told the Kandu News. “Her behavior seemed abnormal.”
“My first reaction was to send her to the police station.”
After ten minutes, the mother is seen holding the baby. From the footage, it is unclear if the baby is on her lap or between her legs. The mother swings her arms recklessly, her fists hitting her own leg and edge of the back seat.
The baby’s cries are heard in the video, slightly muffled. By this time, he actually looks back at the woman.
At 12:00 p.m., the woman can be seen half-laying along the back seat, with the baby still out of view.
A few minutes later, Chen arrived at the police station.
When the back door is opened, the child is seen standing on the floor between her legs. The police officer picks up the child, and the woman is taken to the hospital.
After the woman’s family members were contacted, they came to the station to pick up the child a few hours later.
After staying in the hospital for an unspecified length of time, the woman was sent home and in stable condition, according to Kandu News.
