Mother arrested after video of baby smoking a cigar goes viral

Brianna Ashanti Lofton has been charged with marijuana possession and two counts of felony child abuse

A mother has been arrested after a video emerged of her child smoking a cigar.

The 10-second clip shared on social media showed the hand of an adult off-screen. holding what appears to be a cigarillo to the infant’s lips. The child then makes a cooing sound before inhaling and letting out a puff of smoke.

The video got more than 1.5 million views and helped North Carolina authorities identify and arrest the mother, 20-year-old Brianna Ashanti Lofton.

Raleigh Police Department in North Carolina said the child was safe and Lofton was in custody.

"Big thanks to everyone who posted information about the smoking mother and baby," department officials said on Facebook. "Thanks to your willingness to get involved, the child is now safe and the mother is in police custody."

It wasn't immediately clear what substance the child was smoking, but Ms Lofton was charged with marijuana possession.

She was also charged with two counts of felony child abuse, according to a police news release.

The boy was placed with the county's child protective services department.

Rasheed Martin, the Facebook user who posted the video online, said he was happy he helped to raise awareness as he wanted the person responsible to be held accountable.

"Once more and more people found out about this situation, they showed me a screenshot of her actual Facebook page," he said.

"Then I later added it to the post so everyone could know exactly who... did that to the poor little girl."

Agencies contributed to this report