Teen Mom, Baby in Hand, Attacked Camden Officers: Police

Reporting by Cherry Hill Patch Editor Bryan Littel

An 18-year-old mom was arrested and charged after attacking Camden County Police officers Sunday night, throwing punches while holding her three-week-old daughter, authorities said.

Jazmine Mercado, 18, tried to block officers Nicholas Rao and Ramelia Villegas-Diaz from coming into a home on South 4th Street, police said, after Officer Kyle Pesce chased a wanted fugitive into the home.

Mercado punched Rao in the face as he walked in, police said, and he used what police said was “extreme restraint” in trying to arrest Mercado, who continued punching and shoving the officers, without injuring the infant.

She was charged with two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer, three counts of resisting arrest and single counts of obstruction and endangering the welfare of a child, and was taken to the Camden County Jail in lieu of $35,000 cash or bond bail.

“Our officers showed tremendous restraint managing a volatile situation in which a mother put her own child at risk to assault police officers,” said Chief J. Scott Thomson. “Thankfully, this incident was resolved without anyone being seriously injured.”

The man the three officers had pursued into the home, Jonathan Ortiz-Roldan, 20, was also arrested after being caught by Pesce, police said.

Ortiz-Roldan, who had nine outstanding warrants—including a parole warrant—against him, was additionally charged with resisting arrest, and was being held without bail to await his parole officer, police said.