Police: Mom arrested after video of smoking baby goes viral

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Police spokeswoman Laura Hourigan confirmed in an email that officials were referring to the child seen in the video.

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It wasn’t immediately clear what substance the child was smoking, but the mother was charged with marijuana possession. Brianna Ashanti Lofton, 20, was also charged with two counts of felony child abuse, according to a police news release.

The baby was placed with the county’s child protective services department. A phone listing for Lofton couldn’t be found through a public records search.

While police said multiple Facebook users alerted them to the video Wednesday morning, the account holder whose posting was seen by more than a million people said he’s glad the child is now safe.

The user, who identified himself as Rasheed Martin of Rochester, New York, said he hasn’t spoken directly with police, but he’s satisfied that he helped raise awareness. His post prompted numerous comments by people worried about the child or upset with the mother.

Martin said he doesn’t know the mother and first found out about the video when a friend shared it online. He said he wanted the woman to be held responsible, so he reposted the video while urging his followers to help identify the woman.

“Once more and more people found out about this situation, they showed me a screenshot of her actual Facebook page,” Martin said in in an online interview. “Then I later added it to the post so everyone could know exactly who … did that to the poor little girl.”

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Follow Drew at www.twitter.com/JonathanLDrew

Jonathan Drew, The Associated Press