A mother accused of smothering her infant son inside a bathroom at a busy Midtown Manhattan restaurant reportedly told police she put the boy 'to sleep' to spare him from being eaten by someone. Latisha Fisher, 35, has been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly killing 20-month-old Gavriel Ortiz-Fisher with her bare hands inside a restroom at 5 Boro Burger on West 36th Street Monday afternoon. Fisher had a violent past and a history of psychiatric problems, but she was evaluated as mentally fit as recently as last year. Scroll down for video . Latisha Fisher (left) was arrested Monday after allegedly smothering her 20-month-old son Gavriel Ortiz to death in a bathroom at a Manhattan restaurant. She told police she was afraid someone was going to eat her son . The 35-year-old mother allegedly locked herself in the bathroom of 5 Boro Burger  in Midtown where she was later found holding her unconscious baby boy. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia after a 2011 stabbing . Following her arrest for the murder of her baby son, the 35-year-old mother allegedly told police: 'I was afraid that someone was going to eat him so I was protecting him. I put him to sleep with my hand,' reported the New York Post. Recently uncovered records show that Fisher was recommended for an alternative sentencing program after pleading guilty for the 2011 stabbing of her aunt. She received a positive evaluation as recently as September, according to documents seen by the New York Daily News . Fisher was sentenced to probation under the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services program after Tasering her aunt and stabbing her in the head, arm and ear. She had been taking medication to combat her paranoid schizophrenia after being diagnosed in the aftermath of the incident, according to the New York Times. The woman told clinicians that she had heard voices saying that her aunt was trying to kill her before the stabbing. In September a court-appointed social worker said that she was 'a poster child for an alternative to incarceration program' and had 'adjusted very well to the demands of new motherhood'. The report followed a July psychiatric evaluation where she was found 'stable and capable of remaining in the community'. As Latisha Fisher was being led away from the 5 Boro Burger on Monday, she blamed the devil for killing Gavriel Ortiz and then trying to stop workers who attempted to resuscitate him. She was charged with second-degree murder on Tuesday. Witnesses said Fisher was emotionless after the death of her child. 'I would describe her as soulless. She put her hand over his mouth and smothered him,' a police source said. A woman who walked into the bathroom Monday afternoon says she saw Fisher with her hand over the baby's mouth, saying she was trying to 'make him go to sleep'. Above, investigators inside the restaurant on Monday . Baby Gavriel was found unconscious and foaming from the mouth when restaurant workers broke into the bathroom . She claimed that she had put her hand over the boy's nose and mouth to put him to sleep, police say. Workers at the restaurant became alarmed Monday afternoon when a line grew outside the restroom. When employees burst in to see what was wrong, they found Gavriel in his mother's lap - unconscious and foaming from the mouth. A male employee performed CPR until paramedics arrived - despite the mother swatting help away. Unfortunately the aid was too late for the little boy who was later pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital. Police immediately took Fisher into custody and transported her to the Midtown South Precinct. Marcus Comeau told amNY that he was standing down the block when he saw Fisher being led out of the restaurant by police. 'The mother was coming out in handcuffs,' he said. 'She didn't seem too distressed, kind of had her head down.' Recent posts on her Facebook page appear to show her going through an emotional period. 'How did everything change on me. I went to sleep feeling well,' she wrote on March 27, one day after posting a thank you to 'everyone for supporting me'. 'With her attitude and her past, any little thing could have set her off,' Fisher's friend Brian Rivera told the New York Times. 'She’s good and kind until that button gets switched. I don’t know why they ever let her out again' Gavriel was rushed to Bellevue Hospital but doctors could not revive the young boy. Neighbors say that Fisher's older son, who has autism, was also mistreated . Neighbor's in Fisher's (left) Lower East Side apartment say she lived there with her boyfriend and father of her son Luis Ortiz (father and son pictured on the right) She had reportedly poured burning oil onto a former partner’s head and previously tried to kill herself. Neighbors in the Lower East Side housing project where she lives said that she and her boyfriend, Gavriel's father Luis Ortiz, had started fighting around Halloween. Other neighbors told the Daily News that she was 'violent' and that they could often smell marijuana coming from her unit. Fisher spent most of her youth in group homes after setting fire to her crack-addicted mother's sleeping boyfriend as a child. A relative said that the child welfare agency had been told about Fisher's mistreatment of her own older son, who has autism, but a complaint was dismissed because of lack of evidence. She met up with her current boyfriend, Ortiz, in 2013 and had stopped drinking, only showing care for her new baby. However, after her apparent recovery, she had recently shown signs of strange behavior. Mr Rivera told the New York Times that he saw her in her room with candles and a book on witchcraft opened tot a section on 'sacrifice' around October last year. She had also been meeting with a man known to sell drugs. 'She needs help. It doesn’t make sense. I think she was on medication for whatever problem she had, but I’m assuming she wasn’t taking her meds,' a neighbor said. Following Monday's incident, family and friends started pouring out condolences on Luis Ortiz's Facebook page.
Latisha Fisher, 35, allegedly locked herself in a bathroom at 5 Boro Burger in Midtown Manhattan Monday afternoon with son Gavriel Ortiz . When workers at the restaurant gained access to the restroom, they found the 20-month-old boy unconscious and foaming from the mouth . Fisher had previously been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and was called 'poster child' for alternative sentencing . She was given probation for 2011 stabbing of her aunt and was found fit to stay in the community last year . Neighbors say she had recently shown signs of strange behavior .