A shocking video showing three Arkansas teenage girls allegedly taunting a one-year-old girl with a taser and hitting her in the back of the head has led to several arrests.
The Snapchat video, obtained by KARK, shows one of the teens poking the baby with the light of the taser while she screams with her arms outstretched in a cry for help.
A second video clip also shows a teen doing the child’s hair before smacking her in the back of the head. The teens can be heard laughing in the background in both clips, which also display laughing emojis and the caption, “I’m dying.”
The child’s mother, Elyssa Watkins, learned about the abuse from a friend who showed her the video.
“Didn’t think they’d do that. Why would you do that to a one year old – helpless, can’t talk, can’t tell you what’s wrong,” Watkins told KATV.
Watkins told authorities that the three girls had been babysitting her daughter and had not been aware that her daughter was being abused until she viewed the video.
The mother said she took her daughter to be examined at a local hospital as soon as she learned of the incident. Watkins said her daughter suffered no apparent injuries.
Authorities arrested the three teens and charged them with endangering the welfare of a minor. All three teens are being held in a juvenile detention center as they await their first court appearance.
An incident report states that when the officers arrested one of the teenage suspects, her mother claimed that her daughter did not harm the baby and was merely capturing video footage of the abuse.
The arresting officer immediately fired back at the mother, telling her that her daughter “can be seen and heard” in the video “provoking” the abuse.
Watkins told Fox 16 that she thinks the babysitters should go to jail, but at the same time hopes “they can get some counseling.”
Follow Katherine Rodriguez on Twitter @krod315
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