A two-year-old in Arizona was forcibly removed from their home after a doctor raised concerns about their welfare.
The unvaccinated child was taken to a naturopathic doctor with a fever of 105 degrees, KNXV reported. The doctor advised the child's parents to take them to the ER, but when the two-year-old's fever broke, they did not.
After discovering that the child had not been taken to the Cardon Children's Hospital, the doctor called the Arizona DCS who contacted the Department of Child Safety, an incident report revealed.
A SWAT team was then dispatched to forcibly remove the child:According to a police incident report, the measure was taken after the child's father, Brooks Bryce, refused to allow a welfare check to be performed. Police offers were dispatched, and when they arrived at the family home, they heard voices and coughing from inside, but there was no answer when they knocked on the door.
A court order was then obtained by DCS to "[force] entry into the home" and take custody of the two-year-old because the child could have a "life-threatening illness", the police report revealed.
"After consultation with detectives from the Chandler Police Department's Special Victims Unit, the residents were given a final opportunity to exit and take their child to the hospital," the statement read. "Upon their failure to do so, the front door was breached and the family members were called out of the residence."
In the clip above, heavily armed officers can be seen forcing entry into the family home. When they got inside, they forcibly removed the two-year-old and their older siblings, aged four and six. Two of these children were then taken to a hospital in an ambulance and the third by DCS, the report continued.
The children's grandparents were subsequently granted temporary custody, and while the parents were not arrested, they could still face legal action for refusing the welfare check, the report revealed.
The parents now fighting to regain custody of their children.
The incident has now come under fire from Arizona lawmaker Kelly Townsend who has described it as an "abuse of power" on the part of the DCS and law enforcement.
"I think we need to re-think where we draw the line when it comes to disagreements between doctors and parents and what level we're going to go to to keep the child safe," she said.
However, according to a state law passed in 2017, the DCS acted within its rights. It allows the body to "use reasonable force to enter any building in which the person named in the removal authorization is reasonably believed to be."
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