Two Cleveland brothers said they were driving on Wednesday afternoon when a mum nearly threw her toddler in front of their truck.
“Thank God that it was a happy ending instead of a sad ending you know, ain’t no teddy bears right here, no flowers, it’s cool, you know, little boy with his grandmother,” said the driver, Lavell Penson.
Penson and Anthony Brown were working on March 31.
They deliver beer to gas stations in Cleveland.
“We was coming down this way,” explained Brown. “We was coming south and then she was in the middle of the street. I was thinking maybe they were getting ready to cross the street, but she was on this side.”
They were driving down Quincy Avenue near East 55th Street when they saw a woman and a little boy in the middle of the road.
“As we driving down we see like a lady almost like at an angle positioning herself like she was about to throw the little boy in front of the truck,” recalled Brown.
So Penson stopped the truck and Brown jumped out, that’s when Penson started recording.
“She began to like wrestle with him choke him whatever and I’m like tussling with her and I managed to get him away from her,” Brown said. “Talk to him like, ‘Hey it’s gonna be alright,’ he’s crying. I’m like, ‘Listen, bro, it’s gonna be alright I got you.’”
Brown says he then took the child to a security guard at Alfred A. Benesch school on the corner before police arrived.
CMHA Police have launched a criminal investigation into the incident. CMHA Police Chief Andres Gonzalez told 19 News he will soon hand their investigation over to a prosecutor.
According to the police report, the boy’s grandfather arrived on the scene and police allowed him to take custody of his grandson.
Police said the child’s mother appeared to be experiencing a mental crisis. The report goes on to say she grabbed the butt of an officer’s weapon before the officer pushed her off and handcuffed her.
Police said the mother was taken to St. Vincent Charity Hospital for crisis intervention.
“It’s shocking man,” said Lavell. “It would’ve messed my life up if I had took that little boy’s life man so I’m just glad god prevented everything.”
“God put me there,” said Brown. “I ain’t did nothing special I’m just happy that he put me there and I acted on it. I would want somebody to do the same for my daughter if something like that was going on.”
The brothers said the little boy’s grandmother got in touch with them and wants to meet them to thank them for everything they did.