GREENWOOD, Ind. – In a video captured by a bystander that's been watched going-on 300,000 times, a 7-month-old baby is shown going through a terrible experience for a child so young. Now, police are looking into what led to it.
The video was taken on a cellphone at Greenwood City Center Park earlier this week.
It shows a woman placing a baby under a device at a splashpad – a bucket mounted in the air that dumps water on the person below every so often.
Witnesses say at least a dozen times, the woman – whom we learned was the child’s babysitter – allowed the bucket to harshly dump water on the crying baby.
The woman who recorded the now-viral Facebook video says nearly everyone around was concerned – except the babysitter.
“I was slowly walking by, and was like, ‘Are you serious? Is this really going on right now?’” Desiree Howell – the mother of 4 who recorded the video – said. “I was shaking. I was shocked. My mouth dropped.”
She said she was not only shocked by what was happening to the baby, but by the babysitter’s blasé response.
“She said, ‘She needs to get used to it,’” Howell said. “OK – there’s other ways. Get a baby pool. Don’t force gallons of water on her head.”
Bystanders also reported the babysitter made the little girl walk barefoot on the hot ground, the baby crying the entire time. They also say they saw the woman pushing the baby too high in a swing, and she let a teen to scream and swear at the baby.
Another mom nearby called police while Howell pulled out her phone to record what was happening.
She says she posted the video to Facebook only because the police left, saying they saw nothing suspicious.
“So I wanted to put it on (Facebook) to find the mom, hoping that somebody knew who the lady was and to find the mom,” Howell said.
Within 2 hours, she did just that.
The 7-month-old baby’s mother, Brittany Dixon, says she stumbled upon the Facebook video during a work break.
“I could not even breathe,” Dixon said. “I was just hysterically crying. I was lost for words.”
She dropped everything she was doing to pick up her daughter, Annora (nicknamed Nora) and take her to the ER to be checked out.
“There is a possibility of dry drowning, and you never know until they go to sleep and they don’t wake up,” Dixon said.
Annora checked out as OK, but Dixon says she’s never returning to that babysitter – the babysitter she would’ve never known about had it not been for another mom’s video.
“I really appreciate everyone who worked to find me and helped to make sure Nora is OK,” Dixon said.
Howell – who recorded the video – said she’s always willing to step in and protect a child.
“She did not have a voice. She’s too young,” Howell said. “We need to watch out for other moms and stick together as a community.”
Greenwood police are now investigating that babysitter after seeing the video posted to Facebook. We’ve learned the babysitter is a 32-year-old mother of three.
Police say the Department of Child Services is also looking into the babysitter. RTV6 was unsuccessful in our attempts to connect with the babysitter for her comments.
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