Tragedy tot in vid
Mom ‘panhandled’ with scald baby
One of the two baby sisters scalded to death by a malfunctioning radiator was captured on video happily squirming in her stroller as her mom panhandled in Grand Central Terminal a week before the tragedy.
Footage posted to YouTube on Nov. 30 shows Danielle Ambrose at the Midtown transportation hub during one of her regular outings with 1-year-old daughter, Scylee, who is dressed in a pink outfit. Scylee is seen propped up in a stroller next to her 25-year-old mom, who is sitting on the floor strumming her guitar with a box of money sitting in front of her.
“I got child-protective services called. They said I was endangering the welfare of my daughter, which I disagree,” Danielle says in the video. “I’m playing guitar with her in the heated subway. She’s always taken care of.”
Child-welfare services have investigated Ambrose at least six times in multiple states, including the November case for panhandling with her children.
But Ambrose insisted in the video that she wasn’t begging for money.
“I don’t ask nobody, I’m not panhandling. If people like what they hear, they give me a tip,” she said, adding that she typically spends about an hour performing each day.
Scylee and her older sister, 2year-old Ibanez, were killed in the Dec. 7 radiator incident, which Mayor de Blasio deemed a “freak accident.”
They were scalded by steam that poured out into the room when a valve popped off the radiator while the two girls were napping nearby in their Bronx apartment.
The lengthy video was posted by infamous subway prankster Zaida Pugh, who caused hysteria when she released hundreds of crickets on a crowded D train back in August.
Pugh was featured throughout the clip delivering food to multiple homeless people including the struggling mom.
Pugh defended Ambrose, writing on the video, “Shes doing her best and her child isn’t being harm[ed].