A south Minneapolis day-care worker was arrested Friday after allegedly hanging a 16-month-old boy in her charge. The child was rescued, but the day-care worker fled, initiating a chase that sent three people to the hospital and ended with passers-by and police preventing her from jumping off an overpass.
The toddler, who was enrolled at Uptown Daycare in the 2700 block of Humboldt Avenue S., in the East Isles neighborhood, was reportedly found hanging by a parent who was dropping off a child, police said. Police did not say in what part of the house the child was found.
The boy was taken to a hospital for observation, but was "doing fine," Assistant Police Chief Kris Arneson said. She said the suspect is not the boy's mother.
"It's horrific, horrific," Arneson said of the assault on the child. "We never want children to be injured; that's part of the reason we call in our chaplains. It's a horrific scene for officers to encounter, and the victims in this case have injuries based on her actions."
The suspect, identified by police as Nataliia M. Karia, 42, fled the scene in a gold minivan, ran over a man standing near his vehicle at 28th Street and Grand Avenue S., then kept going and struck a bicyclist at 28th Street and Park Avenue S., nearly 2 miles east of the day care.
The pedestrian was dragged a significant distance, police said, and suffered broken bones and scrapes. The bicyclist suffered a broken leg. Both were taken to Hennepin County Medical Center.
A third person struck by the suspect's car, Nicole Thomas, 33, of Minneapolis, had left Wellstone High School and was driving on Park Avenue toward downtown when her car was hit.
Thomas, who is almost six months pregnant, was taken to a hospital for monitoring and released after a few hours.
