YPD: Mom throws child to ground, runs from cops

July 7, 2016 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Police said a South Schenley Avenue woman threw a child she was holding to the ground Tuesday while she tried to run from police.

Kendris Staples, 28, was arraigned in municipal court Wednesday on charges of resisting arrest, violating a protection order and endangering children.

Reports said officers were called about 7:50 p.m. to the 100 block of South Schenley Avenue for a report that Staples was at another home on the street in violation of a protection order.

When officers arrived, they found Staples where the order said she was not supposed to be. She was holding a 1-year-old child and had two other small children with her, reports said.

Reports said an officer told her to put the child down because she would be placed under arrest for violating the protection order, but she refused and began walking away.

The officer grabbed a jacket Staples was wearing in an attempt to slow her down, reports said, but she still would not stop and was walking away from her other two children.

The officer tried to get her to stop, but Staples managed to break away, threw the child on the ground and began running, reports said.

Reports said she made it to a nearby backyard but was boxed in by a fence and police. She was told to stop or she would be stunned with an electronic stun weapon, but she did not stop, so she was stunned.

Reports said Staples ended up on her knees but was grabbing the prongs of the stun weapon and throwing them aside. Officers managed to get her handcuffed.

Two of the children were given to relatives and a third was taken by the Mahoning County Children Services Board. Staples was taken to the county jail. She pleaded not guilty.