EXCLUSIVE: Day care worker caught on camera allegedly hitting, pushing toddler girl in Brooklyn
CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn -- A day care worker was caught on camera allegedly hitting and pushing a 3-year-old child in Brooklyn.
"What happened with the teacher?" Eyewitness News Reporter Kemberly Richardson asked.
"She sat on my back," said victim Lauren Henry.
"She sat on your back, did that make you sad?" Richardson asked.
"Yes," Lauren said.
"What did you do?" Richardson asked.
"I cried," Lauren said.
She's just 3 years old, but Lauren was clearly able to tell Eyewitness News and her mom, Diasia Gillespie, what happened inside Bambi Child Care Center in Crown Heights.
"I felt bad because I wasn't there to protect her, somebody was hurting my baby and she was crying for me, and I wasn't there to protect her," Gillespie said.
The exclusive video, which is extremely hard to watch, shows Lauren, in a white shirt, assaulting the child.
The heavy handed woman is now charged with assault and harassment, that's Ekaterina Silva, who was at the time an employee of the day care on Rogers Ave.
It was nap time last week and Lauren couldn't settle down.
Silva first picks up the toddler, flings her onto a blue cot, and swats her behind.
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Minutes later, Silva is seen grabbing the child by her shirt, forcing her down, and while either sitting on her on next to her, repeatedly pushed Lauren's head down.
At one point, the suspect twisted Lauren's arm and pulled at her legs as Lauren desperately holds onto the bed.
"She sat on her hips and legs, I was like, 'Wow she could have broken her hips anything could have happened to my child,' look how small she is," Gillespie said.
Before seeing the video, the 24-year-old mother of two did meet with Silva, who insisted she did not restrain Lauren.
Gillespie recorded it all with her cell phone.
"I was holding her, but without hurting her, and she came down because she needs this pressure," Silva said.
Gillespie has taken both of her daughters out of the day care.
"I think they should look at the film from months back because who's to say she hasn't done that to other children," Gillespie said.
Allison Reid owns the day care center.
"When you saw the video, what did you think?" Richardson asked.
"I was shocked, especially when she pulled the child by the shirt, I was shocked," Reid said.
Reid says that Silva was a new, temporary employee who had only been working there a week.
"Her defense was she was trained in special education and because the child was out of control, she was holding the child," Reid said.
Lauren's mother said she's not a special needs student and feels her daughter was hardly out of control.
Reid insists what happened was a fluke.
"If I knew something was going on I wouldn't have cameras," Reid said.
