American Idol alum Syesha Mercado has had another baby taken from her.
The singer, 34, shared an hour-long Instagram video of sheriff’s deputies forcing her to hand over her newborn daughter on the side of the road, even as Mercado told them her baby was still breastfeeding. “THEY TOOK OUR BABY AGAIN!,” she captioned the Aug. 10 video.
Mercado has explained on social media that she brought her firstborn son, Amen’Ra, to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., earlier this year. She took him in to get “extra fluids,” because he was weaning from extended breast feeding to eating more solids. However, she said armed officers “forcefully removed me from my son” in March after she was accused of abuse and neglect, in her words.
The singer wrote on Instagram, “They ripped me away from my proudest creation in life, pure joy, my SUNhine.”
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office “concluded an investigation” in March after receiving information through an abuse hotline about a child at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital “who was suffering from severe malnutrition/failure to thrive,” according to Randy Warren, a public information officer of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, in a statement to E! News on Aug. 13.