Syesha Mercado has run afoul of child protective services for the second time in the last year. This time around, the American Idol alum had her infant child taken away by law enforcement earlier this week.
Five months after the 34-year-old singer’s firstborn 15-month-old son Amen’Ra, was “legally kidnapped,” according to her Instagram bio, her 10-day-old newborn daughter was similarly removed from her custody.
In a candid Instagram video of the situation posted on Tuesday, August 10, Mercado documented what she said happened. She captioned the footage, “THEY TOOK OUR BABY AGAIN,” which has since gone viral and seen more than 2 million times.
In the hourlong video, her partner Tyron Deener filmed the pair driving in Sarasota, Florida. Not long after the video began, the local sheriff’s department surrounded the family’s car to conduct a “roadside welfare check.”
The authorities presented the couple with a court order of custody to take the infant to a hospital for a physical exam.
As the police began to take the child, the American Idol alum attempted to appeal to their consciences. “Do you not feel anything? You guys, I’m human,” Mercado said to the first responders on the scene. “This is my baby. My baby is days old — and you’re taking my baby away from me.”
Syesha Mercado And The Attempt To Keep Their Kid
Take Action today to help #BringRaHome https://t.co/Fru90KoGIZ
— Syesha Mercado (@Syesha) August 9, 2021
When that appeal didn’t work to keep the first responders from taking the child, Mercado’s partner tried his hand at convincing them. Deener tried to claim the pair had been “compliant” with every law regarding the children. However, neither Mercado or her partner’s claims persuaded law enforcement to let them leave with the child.
Mercado, who appeared in the 2008 season of American Idol, then tried another tact with them.
“You are traumatizing my baby. How could you guys do this?” Mercado added in the clip. “… You have no heart. This is so wrong. I have the key to this city [which she was presented with after her Idol appearance in 2008] … I’ll hold it together. I’m strong.”
Holding It Together
The pair lost their first child in early February after there were claims he was malnourished. Those reports came about after Mercado tried to ween the baby off of breast milk.
The singer’s milk supply reportedly started to run dry because she was pregnant. She said that her older infant child had problems adjusting to formula rather than milk.
In July, she wrote that the baby had been “legally kidnapped” and that she wasn’t going to have a chance to regain custody until November.
“It’s been 118 days since they stole our Sun and forced us to leave him at the hospital by himself for weeks,” Mercado wrote in a social media post. “Then placed him in Foster Care with a white family, bypassing our over qualified relative, ripping Ra Ra apart from his culture, his loving home, and his entire WORLD.”