Police forcibly took a Black toddler from his mother's car and then posted his photo to Facebook saying he was 'lost,' lawyers for the family say

Philadelphia police officers smashed a Black woman's car, violently arrested her, and then released her without charges.

A couple of days later, a police union posted a photo of her two-year-old son in the arms of an officer and said he "was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia, wandering around barefoot in an area that was experiencing complete lawlessness."

Kevin Mincey, one of the woman's lawyers, described the posts as "propaganda" in an interview with Insider.

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Philadelphia police smashed the windows of a mother's car, violently arrested her, and then took her 2-year-old son before posting a photo of him on social media Thursday claiming he "was lost during the violent riots," an attorney representing the mother told Insider.

The boy was taken by police Tuesday night, as his mother, Rickia Young, a 28-year-old Black health aide, was driving home with him and her teenage nephew. According to her lawyers, she accidentally drove near a protest against police violence, which followed the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr. earlier that day.

As can be seen in video footage posted to social media, as Young turned her car around to leave the area, police surrounded her car and smashed her windows.

On Thursday, the National Fraternal Order of Police, a police officer union, posted a photo to Facebook and Twitter showing a Philadelphia police officer embracing the boy.

"This child was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia, wandering around barefoot in an area that was experiencing complete lawlessness," the union claimed in the posts. "The only thing this Philadelphia police officer cared about in that moment was protecting this child."

The social media posts — which were deleted after the Philadelphia Inquirer asked about them Thursday — were complete nonsense, Kevin Mincey, one of Young's attorneys, told Insider.

"The National Fraternal Order of police took this photo of the child and put it on their Facebook page and came up with this narrative that 'only we can protect him' — all made up lies," Mincey told Insider. "Not only does it victimize Rickia, but it's using her son as a propaganda tool."

—Riley H. Ross III (@AttorneyRoss) October 30, 2020

Young's head was bleeding and her body was badly bruised after police threw her to the ground, Mincey said. She was taken to the hospital for medical treatment before being processed at a police station, according to Mincey. Young was ultimately released without any charges.

"Her face was bloodied and she looked like she had been beaten by a bunch of people on the street," Mincey told The Washington Post Friday. "She is still in pain."

Young's son and nephew were also injured in the incident, Mincey told Insider, and separated from her for hours. Young's grandmother, who she called while in police custody, found the toddler, Mincey said.

Mincey told Insider that Young has still not been told where to retrieve her damaged car or her son's hearing aids that were left inside it.

A Philadelphia police representative told the Inquirer that the department has opened an internal affairs investigation into the incident. Mincey said his law firm would conduct its own investigation and is planning to sue the police department.

The Pennsylvania division of the Fraternal Order of Police didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.