Mother fleeing crime scene uses own infant as human shield

Mother fleeing crime scene uses own infant as human shield

Taylor WrightThe mother-of-the-year candidates just keep on coming. Today’s contender is Taylor Wright of Pensacola, Fla. According to The Smoking Gun, the 23-year-old mother of three allegedly walked out of a Dillard’s Monday evening with $261 worth of clothing hidden in a baby stroller. When she was accosted in the parking lot by a sheriff’s deputy, Wright held a baby carrier containing her infant daughter in front of her and shouted, “You will have to shoot through the baby to get me!”

According to a report filed by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Department, the deputy approached the woman as she climbed into the front of of a Nissan Pathfinder on the passenger side. She screamed at her husband to get in the car, even as the deputy ordered her to step outside. It was at this point that used her baby as a human shield. Her other two small children — a two-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl — were in the back seat watching.

Ultimately, Wright, still clutching the carrier and baby, bolted from the car and attempted to escape on foot. A deputy gave pursuit. When he closed the gap, he writes that the suspect “threw the baby carrier…at me, about shoulder height.”

After dodging the airborne carrier — and the 14-pound baby — the deputy finally caught up Wright, who continued to struggle. By now she was bleeding from a fall, during which she struck her head on the ground. As deputies attempted to apply handcuffs, Wright shook her head from side-to-side, spraying them with blood and said, “Now you mother**kers have my blood all over you b**ches.”

Luckily, the baby was uninjured.

Ultimately, Wright admitted stealing the clothing, insisting “it was because her kids needed school clothes.” The stolen garments, however, turned out to be a woman’s shirt and two pairs of Miss Me jeans, not children’s garments.

Charged with felony child abuse, petty theft, and resisting an officer, Wright was booked into the county jail, where she remains locked up in lieu of $7,000 bond.

One missing element from the story is the disposition of her children. The penalty for a felony child abuse conviction includes up to five years in prison — a sentence that seems more than warranted under the circumstances. Even if her husband is of sound mind and a rational being, is this a woman who can be entrusted to be around young children?

LU Staff

LU Staff

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