A woman was arrested after she allegedly tried to drown a 4-year-old boy in a Northern California irrigation canal before he was rescued, authorities said Tuesday.
A California Highway Patrol officer jumped into the canal in Yuba County Monday and pulled up the boy after struggling with the woman, who was holding the boy face down, “smothering him in the muddy embankment” in about 5 feet of water, according to a CHP news release cited by the Sacramento Bee.
Taylor Delaine Green, 31, of Dobbins, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, child endangerment, resisting arrest, trying to take an officer’s gun and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the CHP said.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether she had an attorney to speak on her behalf.
The incident began at about 6:30 p.m. as the officer investigated a report of a Dodge Caravan blocking a rural road.
The officer was checking out the car when he heard screaming nearby and saw Green in some weeds near the irrigation canal, the CHP said.
At one point, Green completely submerged herself and the boy and the officer jumped in, pulled up the boy and was crawling back up the embankment when Green began fighting with him and trying to pull him and the boy under water while the officer held the boy in one hand, the CHP said.
The officer managed to hand off the boy to an arriving Yuba County sheriff’s sergeant and Green was finally taken into custody by deputies, CHP officers and police officers from nearby Maryville, authorities said.