Photos Show Baby Crawling Across This Lakewood Road

LAKEWOOD, NJ — Lakewood police and state child protective services staff are continuing to investigate after photos of a baby crawling across a road in Lakewood set off a social media firestorm over the weekend, criticizing both the parents of the infant and the man who took the photo.

The photos posted Saturday evening by Cory Cannon of Eatontown show the baby crawling across Joe Parker Road in Lakewood. Cannon, in comments on the photo, said he was on his way to work Saturday when he saw the baby. He stopped his truck to block traffic, got the baby out of the street and called police, he said.

The photos have been removed from Facebook, but they're still appearing on social media:

Capt. Gregory Staffordsmith of the Lakewood Police Department confirmed Cannon called police just before 6 p.m. to report the incident. Cannon told Police Officer Kevin Ortiz that as he was getting the baby out of the road, he was approached by a nearby resident who took the little boy and returned him to his family.

Staffordsmith said further investigation by police found that the infant may have left through a door that was left unsecured by an older sibling. The family of the child was unaware that he had left until the neighbor returned him.

Staffordsmith said the investigation is still active, with the assistance of the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency.

Cannon, 43, said in comments on his photos that he thought of his 4-month-old daughter when he saw the baby in the road.

Some commenters have assumed he merely stopped to take the photos, but Cannon said in comments the photos were to protect himself as he was trying to protect the child: "I was working and blocked traffic to help the child, the pic was taken as I was jumping out of the truck. I’m a 6’2” 220lb Blackman ... The officer who met up with me asked me if I took pictures and also ran my license. So I damn well I had to protect myself."

His wife, Zenobia Cannon, expressed frustration at criticisms directed at her husband, saying her husband had to protect himself as well as the baby, saying if he had just picked up the baby and driven it to the police station, someone could have called police on him.

"Another driver thinking or assuming my husband kidnapping that baby and them calling the police saying 'its a black man that just picked up a baby n drove off,' ... most likely my husband wouldn't even had a chance to explain anything because guns would of been drawn out on him like he some type of scumbag or criminal," she wrote in a post on Facebook.

"All my husband did was acting accordingly as a black man and not only saved that baby but saved himself by thinking on point and quick and continuing to take his ass to his next job and come back home to his wife n 4mth old daughter because he has a family also," she wrote.

Here is more information on the incident

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First photo: YouTube Second photo of Joe Parker Road via Google Maps