On Dec. 6, the life of a 4-year-old boy was hanging in the balance until a California Highway Patrol officer arrived to save him.
A call had come in about a 2005 White Dodge Caravan blocking a rural road in Yuba County, California. At around 6:30 p.m. a CHP officer arrived to check it out, according to The Sacramento Bee.
Circling the empty van, the officer heard a scream about 100 yards west and looked to see a woman crouching in the weeds along a nearby irrigation canal.
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As he got closer, the horrifying picture grew clearer: The woman was holding a young boy face-down in the muddy water, “smothering him in the muddy embankment,” authorities said, according to The Sacramento Bee.
The woman was “extremely combative” and “acting irrationally,” clearly under the influence of some sort.
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As the officer tried to take the 4-year-old boy from her, she threw herself and the boy into a deeper part of the canal, appearing intent on finishing what she had started.
The officer jumped in after her and wrested the boy away from her. She fought the officer for several minutes, attempting to grab his gun several times and drag the boy back underwater.
When a Yuba officer arrived, the boy was handed off to him while the CHP officer continued to wrestle with the woman, who was later identified as 31-year-old Taylor Delaine Green of Dobbins.
When she was finally subdued, she was arrested on “suspicion of attempted homicide, child endangerment, resisting arrest, trying to take an officer’s gun and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” according to a statement from the CHP Yuba-Sutter Area Office obtained by The Sacramento Bee.
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The Los Angeles Times added that two attempted murder charges are possible, one for each the boy and the officer.
Green was taken to Yuba County Jail and is being held in lieu of a $500,000 bail. While the initial reports did not reveal whether she and the boy were related, later reports said that she was his mother.
According to the Los Angeles Times, spokesperson for the Yuba-Sutter area CHP, Brian Danielson, confirmed that the boy was Green’s son.
Danielson also said that the boy is fine, has been handed over to his father and is being followed up on by Child Protective Services.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.