Jazmine Headley, the mother whose baby was physically ripped from her arms by police officers at a Brooklyn benefits center on Friday, was released from Rikers Island on Tuesday night and reunited with her young son.
Headley briefly spoke to reporters outside her Bed-Stuy home after she was released at about 9 p.m. on Tuesday night.
“I just want to thank everybody for all the support I’ve been getting in New York,” she said. “I’m just so grateful — to everyone. And I’m just happy to be free. I just need to see my boy.”
Headley then went upstairs to her apartment and joined her family, including her 17-month-old son, Damone Buckman III.
Earlier Tuesday, the Brooklyn DA dropped their case against Headley and a judge ordered her to be released from the jail.
Headley, 23, was arrested on Friday over a seating dispute with security officers at a Boerum Hill social services center.
Video captured of her arrest shows NYPD officers physically pry her 1-year-old child from her arms as she struggled to hold onto the baby boy.
She was arrested on several charges, including resisting arrest and acting in a manner injuries to a child.
When ordering Headley be released from Rikers, Judge Craig Walker said in Brooklyn Supreme Court Tuesday: “It’s the right thing to do, so she will be released forthwith.”



