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The driver drove through a red light, swerved through traffic, jumped a curb and drove over a small tree with the woman and child on the hood before police pulled the car over and arrested both adults.
The infant was put into protective custody. Police said neither the infant nor the mother were hurt.
The Ramsey County attorney’s office on Thursday charged the mother, Blythe R. Jarrett, 26, and her live-in, ex-boyfriend Rarity Abdullah, 23, with endangerment of a child, a gross misdemeanor.
The arrests Wednesday evening came less than five hours after the mother had been released from jail after a driving while intoxicated arrest. Jarrett told police that Abdullah was not the father of her child.
“It’s very concerning behavior when children are used as leverage in domestic disputes,” said Cmdr. Shari Gray, who oversees the police department’s family violence unit. “It’s just not acceptable for any parent to put a child in that situation and for the driver to continue driving knowing there is a baby on the hood.”
Police spokesman Tom Walsh said the incident started outside the couple’s St. Paul apartment as Abdullah was about to leave in a car the mother told police was hers. Police received a 911 call from a witness to the incident at 5:36 p.m. Officers stopped the car shortly afterward.
The criminal complaint in the case said Abdullah told police he stopped the car four times and asked Jarrett to get in. Witnesses said the driver was driving recklessly while accelerating and making U-turns. At one point, he hit a small pine tree.
Janet Bierman, who lives in the same apartment complex, said she was surprised to see Jarrett jump onto the car with her child. She called the woman a good mother and said the only explanation was that she was desperate.
“She really needs that car to get back and forth to school,” Bierman said. “She’s a very quiet, nice girl. She gets up, takes the kids to day care, goes to school, comes home and cooks dinner for her kids, and then goes to sleep.”
Jarrett and Abdullah were scheduled to make their first court appearance Thursday afternoon.
