Bystanders step in after mother allegedly punches 2-year-old in face

By Vivian Yee, Globe Correspondent, and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A group of MBTA bus riders stepped in Tuesday and refused to let a woman who allegedly punched her 2-year-old son walk away with the injured child after she got off the bus in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, authorities said today.

Erica Ryan

MBTA Transit Police said in a report that they arrived at the intersection of Warren and Brunswick streets at 3:32 p.m. and found “a hostile group circled around a woman holding an infant.’’ With some difficulty, police separated the mother, identified as 25-year-old Erica Ryan, and the child from the group of upset people, police said.

“No one is going to take away my baby,” Ryan told police, according to the report.

Other officers arrived and interviewed the passengers who had been on the Route 23 bus with Ryan. At least three people told police they first heard Ryan directing vulgarities at the child when he refused to eat.

“Little bastard, you got one more chance,” Ryan said, passengers told police.

The passengers told police they saw Ryan “strike her child in the mouth with a closed fist.’’ After that, the passengers approached Ryan and “expressed their concerns for the well-being of the child.’’

But Ryan refused to listen to them. “No one will tell me how to be a parent,” she allegedly told passengers.

At Ryan’s arraignment today in Roxbury District Court on a charge of assault and battery on a child causing injury, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Esther Lainé said a security camera had captured video of Ryan striking her son in the mouth with a closed fist, causing his head to snap back in his stroller.

“This individual punches a 2-year-old child to the extent that you can see the force of the punch and his head pops back,” Lainé said. “It’s an alarming situation.”

Police said in the report that the child had dried blood around his mouth and that he appeared to have been crying. The child was taken to Boston Medical Center for treatment.

Lainé, who read the arrest report aloud, asked Judge David Weingarten at the hearing to set bail at $25,000, a figure merited, she said, by the severity of Ryan’s assault.

But Ryan’s court-appointed lawyer, Adelio DeMiranda, emphasized that Ryan has no prior criminal record. He also questioned whether the child sustained any injuries.

“There are some major ifs in this case, one of which is did he suffer any injuries other than some dried blood on the side of his mouth?” said DeMiranda.

He asked the judge to release Ryan on personal recognizance, adding that she had no way of coming up with what he called the “excessive” sum of $25,000.

Ryan appeared only briefly, concealing herself from view behind a door for most of the arraignment. After conferring with both lawyers, Weingarten set bail at $500, with the condition that Ryan stay away from her son if released.

After the arraignment, DeMiranda said his client would probably make bail. Her son has been released from Boston Medical Center, where he was treated after the incident, and is currently staying with Ryan’s father, Lainé said.