A Gainesville mom came home to a nasty surprise Tuesday evening. Her babysitter apparently holding a pillow over her baby girl's face.
When the mother yelled "what is going on,!" the sitter jumped back from the baby's crib, releasing the pillow, the baby immediately started screaming.
The mother is a manager at a fast food restaurant and the sitter is one of her employees, someone she thought she knew.
According to Gainesville police detectives the mother walked into her nursery and saw the babysitter holding a pillow over her baby's face, her daughter's legs flailing.
Detective Farrah Lormil says 21-year-old Tiffany Long's initial reaction was; " i'm sorry, this has never happened before, please don't call the police, you'll never hear from me again." Long ran, but was picked up by police, a quarter mile away. First telling detectives she was playing peek-a-boo with the pillow.
Detective Lormil says; "it was just weird that she would try to tickle a baby's face with a pillow and not a finger not some thing smaller not a toy but a pillow."
The baby was checked into Shands and cleared of any injuries. Long was arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse and battery on a child.
A good resource for parents with limited resources or just in need of reliable health care should contact The Early Learning Coalition of Alachua County at (352) 375-4110.