An Ohio mother has been arrested after witnesses said they watched a woman violently dunk her three-month-old infant into a lake.
Sharon Rose O’Hara, 39, was seen on July 28 repeatedly banging a car seat on the ground at Caesar Creek State Park with the infant still strapped inside, the shocked onlookers told police.
She then allegedly became even more aggressive as she brought the car seat with the baby inside over to the lake at the park and started slamming the baby into the water, WXIX reports.
But in a disturbing twist, when police arrived on the scene, they noticed O’Hara had a nine-year-old child with her, according to WKRC.
At one point, O’Hara even took the baby out of the car seat and started flipping the infant back and forth and dunked her underwater, prosecutors say.
Bystanders eventually ran over to stop O’Hara and protect the baby, while another called 911.
That child then told cops that they had been treated badly by their mother for days leading up to the incident at the lake.
O’Hara was finally indicted in the incident on Monday, with a grand jury report stating that she ’caused serious physical harm to her three-month-old child and created a substantial risk to the health and safety of her 9 year old,’ according to Law & Crime.
The mother was then arrested on Tuesday and was charged with three counts of endangering a child and one count of felonious assault.
She is being held at the Warren County Jail, as her children remain in the custody of a relative. The current condition of the infant is unclear.