We are happy to share that “American Idol” star Syesha Mercado and her partner, Tyrone Deener, were reunited with their newborn daughter Ast on Friday.
Read our last post about this case here.
The couple shared the news on Instagram, posting a video of their sleeping infant daughter in the car.
According to The New York Post:
Mercado, 34, and Deener, 36, could be seen laughing and smiling in the video as they seemed happy to have their baby back safe and sound.
“AST IS HOME!!!! #BringRaHome POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!!!” Mercado captioned the clip. Deener thanked fans for helping them get the resources they needed to get their daughter back from Florida’s CPS.
“We still got work to do to get ‘Ra back. Thank you, because of y’all we had the proper support to get the best attorneys in the country,” he said.
The couple’s other child, Amen’Ra, was taken five months earlier by authorities. He was placed into foster care in March after Mercado’s breast milk supply started to run dry, and he would not accept other fluids. He has still not been returned home to Deener and Mercado yet.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office took Ast on Aug. 11 in a stressful moment that Deener filmed in a now-viral video. The two were driving in Florida when cops surrounded their car and took Ast to a hospital for a physical amid allegations of malnutrition.
On Tuesday, the singer weepingly held a virtual news conference where she described how she’s missing her two children. Deener joined her on the video and claimed that they are good citizens and can’t understand why they were being hunted by the cops.
“I went somewhere to get assistance, my baby was supposed to come home with me,” Mercado said. “We should have never been criminalized for getting assistance for something.”
“Our life revolves around health, balance and doing what we can to guide our children,” Deener added. “Nothing that we do is detrimental to our babies.”
Renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump has taken up Mercado’s case. The lawyer made headlines when he defended the families of slain victims Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Jacob Blake.
Crump recently called out the Florida sheriffs for “publicly dehumanizing” a black family and he hopes to help Mercado and Deener get both of their children back.
One more child to go! We cannot wait to see this family back together again.
