SerpApi.Org
The blue skies and rainbow in Facebook posts promoting Brooke Reiner’s at-home daycare were hiding a much darker reality - one that allegedly led to a baby’s severe brain damage, according to a newly released search warrant by Smithfield police.
Reiner, 26, is charged with providing childcare without a license leading to serious injury and two counts of intentional child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury, court records show.
She was arrested July 7, the day after WakeMed Raleigh doctors contacted Smithfield police about a seriously injured infant in their care.
The 8-month-old was brought to the emergency room by Johnston County paramedics after Reiner called 911 to report the child was having a seizure, according to a search warrant in the case.
“The child was awoken from a nap around 5:00PM,” a detective wrote. “When Reiner was preparing to change the child’s diaper, the child’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he began to have a seizure.”
Reiner said she’d tried to rouse the child by shaking him during the seizure but was unsuccessful, according to the warrant. The baby was in intensive care with extensive brain injuries, and his chances of surviving were deemed “slim” by surgeons, the warrant states.
An arrest warrant accuses Reiner of throwing the infant onto a changing table, slamming his head against the table and striking him in the face, head and abdomen.
A search by The News & Observer of state childcare facilities under the “Sunrise to Sunset Childcare” name Reiner advertised online found no licensed facilities.
Reiner’s Facebook states she opened the daycare in January 2025, though a November 2024 post describes the daycare as already in operation.
“I started a [sic] Inhome Daycare as a way for me to be a stay at home mom as a single mom,” Reiner wrote. “I also wanted to help parents that are just as nervous about sending their child to daycare as I was.”
Reiner acknowledged in the November 2024 post she wasn’t yet licensed, but said she planned to be by February 2025. While unlicensed, she was “legally allowed to care for 2 children that are not mine,” she wrote.
Reiner appeared to have advertised the daycare as recently as February, posting in a Smithfield and Clayton childcare Facebook group that she had two openings. She described her facility as a “warm, safe and loving home environment” and said she was certified in CPR, basic life support and first aid.
Two children were killed and more than 500 were seriously injured during the 2024-25 fiscal year at licensed childcare facilities and homes in North Carolina, state data shows.
Reiner remained jailed with her bail set at $5 million secured as of Wednesday afternoon. The Smithfield Police Department declined to confirm whether the child was still alive Wednesday.
