Toronto police are concerned about the welfare of a baby who appears to be aggressively swung around and repeatedly dipped into a tub of water by an unidentified woman in a video that was recently shared on Facebook.
The disturbing video was posted to Facebook on May 26 and has since been viewed more than 100,000 times. It's unclear if the baby, who is believed to be a boy, is Canadian. Police say the nearly two-minute long video that "shows abuse of an infant" was brought to their attention by the Catholic Children's Aid Society on Tuesday.
"The baby is being swung by its arm and is repeatedly being dunked into a bucket of water," police spokesperson Meaghan Gray told CTV Toronto.
She said investigators are working to determine the baby's location and where the video was shot.
Police have reached out to Facebook about the video, which apparently doesn't violate their policies.
"We have contacted Facebook to get their assistance, but have been notified by Facebook that (the video) doesn’t violate their community standards," Gray said.
Throughout most of the video, the baby can be heard crying as a woman, who isn't speaking English, holds the young child above a tub of knee-deep water. At one point in the video, the baby appears to be held by his head.
The woman's face is never shown in the video, and the baby's head doesn't appear to ever dip below the surface of the water.
Police are appealing to the public to come forward if they know anything about the young child or the woman in the video.
"If they know of the identity of the child or the identity of the person committing these acts to please contact us," Gray said.
Police acknowledge there may be cultural aspects to how the baby is being treated in the video, but say they are still concerned about the infant and believe the child is at risk.
CTV Toronto has contacted Facebook. The social media giant says they are looking into the video.
With a report from CTV Toronto's John Musselman
