A 20-year-old woman, Brianna Ashanti Lofton, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was arrested after she became the subject of a viral Facebook video which showed a one-year-old baby smoking a marijuana cigarillo.
What happened?
According to News & Observer, Lofton was originally accused of “causing, encouraging and aiding a one-year-old child to smoke a marijuana blunt” in the original arrest warrant issued against her.
Eventually, according to the City of Raleigh’s online records, the Raleigh Police Department’s public information records issued the following statements:
“Raleigh Police Department officers have arrested Brianna Ashanti Lofton (DOB 10/20/97), the mother of the baby seen smoking in a video posted on Facebook. She was charged with two counts of Felony Child Abuse, Contributing to Delinquency, and Possession of Marijuana, and transported to the Wake County Detention Center. The baby has been placed with Wake County Child Protective Services.”
“Raleigh residents and others began posting the video and comments on the Department’s Facebook page just after 9:30 a.m. today. ‘We appreciate the public’s help in this matter,’ said RPD Lieutenant Jason Hodge. ‘We welcome and encourage any assistance the public is willing to give us at all times.'”
Who is Brianna Ashanti Lofton?
According to The New York Post, in an article issued by the Associate Press, the version of the viral video which garnered around 1.5 million views was not uploaded by Lofton, but an individual identified as Rasheed Martin of Rochester New York, who had been trying to find the identity of the woman who appears in the video. Reportedly, a friend had shared an alternate version of the video with him; Martin and Lofton do not know each other in real life, as he only wanted her held responsible for the video, as he explained in the following statement during an online interview:
“Once more and more people found out about this situation, they showed me a screenshot of her actual Facebook page.”
“Then I later added it to the post so everyone could know exactly who … did that to the poor little girl.”
As The New York Post explained, the woman and child who appear in the video are believed to be mother and daughter. With Lofton currently in police custody, the child is said to be safe, having been placed with the county’s child protective services department.
Although the substance the child was smoking in the video was not immediately clear, Lofton is currently being charged with marijuana possession and two counts of felony child abuse. Lofton is currently being held on a $100,000 bond.
