AVENTURA, Fla. – A 60-year-old woman faced a judge Monday after spending the night in jail. Authorities said Martha Pratt of Miami grabbed a random 4-month-old baby who was being pushed in a stroller at the Aventura Mall on Sunday afternoon.
The girl’s father told police that Pratt was yelling obscenities and saying that she wanted to take the baby with her.
Police were called to the mall after a woman and the father of her child told police they were in the mall when they were approached by Pratt who unexpectedly grabbed their 4-month-old daughter by the shirt as she was in her stroller.
Aventura police said the family does not know Pratt and the mother immediately tried to push her away in an effort to protect her baby. Pratt smacked the mother’s hand away, according to the police report.
According to the report, she then ran out of the mall but officers found her a short time later in the parking lot of the nearby Aventura branch library.
Pratt was arrested on charges of battery and child neglect without great bodily harm.
During her court appearance on Monday, Glazer asked the woman if she had “hospital benefits.” Pratt told her lawyer that she did.
The judge said she would consider having Pratt be admitted to a hospital and be placed there for a few days to get “stabilized” instead of sitting in jail “with a bond that you may, or may not be able to post.”
The conclusion was reached in hopes of figuring out where “this suspect is and was mentally,” said the judge.