Case closed in mother's claim child injured at day care; police say child was not assaulted

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — A police investigation into a mother’s claims that her toddler came home injured from a Federal Way day care March 5 has determined the child was not assaulted.

>> RELATED: Federal Way police investigate mother's claims her toddler was injured at day care

Surveillance video shows the 2-year-old, who attended Childtime Daycare, pulled out her own hair from her scalp, Federal Way police said.

The child’s mother, Chelsy Cooper told KIRO 7 when she picked up her daughter, Chyna, from the day care, she noticed injuries that weren’t there when she dropped her off in the morning.

The injuries included rows of braids that Cooper said were pulled from the child’s scalp, along with a cut on her lips.

The day after the alleged incident, Cooper was outraged by what she said happened to her daughter and posted on Facebook about the alleged abuse. She posted her daughter’s photo on her page showing the missing braids. That caused a social media frenzy.

“There was no report given to me, there was no call given to me, there was nothing,” said Cooper. “The most hurtful part about this is that Chyna told me that she was screaming.”

After Federal Way police investigators looked over hours of video on the day the child’s hair was pulled from her head, they said they clearly saw the child playing and pulling on her own braids.

Cooper, however, does not believe police did a full investigation and is still seeking legal action against the day care, as well as the police.

The Federal Way Mirror reports that Cooper said the video showed only "bits and pieces" of what detectives received from the day care of what happened throughout the day of the alleged incident. "My daughter also came home saying that she hurt her finger and busted her lip and they don't see that on the tape," Cooper said, noting that the day care facility later gave her an incident report that noted her daughter's lip and finger were injured. "I do believe the tapes were messed with in some type of way and [the day care] is trying to cover up what happened to my daughter."

The Federal Way Mirror reports that the day care looked over the footage and an internal investigation also substantiated the same conclusion as investigators.

However, Cooper told the Federal Way Mirror “No, sorry. I don’t believe it,” she said. “Even if she was pulling at her own hair, something happened to her prior to that. When she came home, she was pulling on her own head. She was screaming and crying for help and they don’t even have her on video crying.”

Federal Way police have now closed the case.

Cox Media Group