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Woman arrested for attempted murder over video of her suffocating infant son

Posted at 12:41 PM, Sep 01, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-01 16:43:54-04

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indianapolis mother at the center of a July Amber Alert was arrested Thursday night on a charge of attempted murder against her 1-year-old son.

Police put out an alert for Mekielle Pullins, 22, in July after she allegedly abducted her three children. The children were located safely later that evening.

The charge of attempted murder Pullins now faces stems from a video and messages she allegedly sent to David Daniel, the father of her 1-year-old son.

According to court documents, Pullins sent Daniel a video showing her standing in a bathroom with one hand completely covering the mouth and nose her son while he struggled to get free, pressing the back of his head against her body. During the 10-second video, Pullins' "suffocating grasp" was so strong that it supported the child's weight and his feet were dangling in the air. 

RELATED | Amber Alert for three endangered children should have been issued days earlier

Detectives say some of the other emails they found talked about how much Pullins hated the infant and how she would kill him if Daniel didn't come get him and take care of him. 

In one message, Pullins allegedly wrote, “Bout to call police so they can come get his body. Explain to him in the next lifetime why he dead.” In another she reportedly said she hated the child and that “he needs to die.”

Marion County Prosecutors filed the attempted murder charge against Pullins, but she wasn’t arrested until Thursday evening, when police took her into custody at the Spanish Oaks Apartments on the far east side.

Pullins also had an active warrant for her arrest out of Johnson County stemming from a May case involving charges of domestic battery, criminal recklessness, resisting law enforcement and disorderly conduct.

As of Friday afternoon, Pullins had not yet made her first court appearance. 

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