Tragedies like the recent incident at a Texas water park serve as a reminder of the potential dangers that can arise when technology consumption takes precedence over our responsibilities…
In this heart-wrenching case, a 3-year-old boy lost his life while his mother, allegedly engrossed in her phone and oblivious to her son’s distress, failed to notice him drowning.
Jessica Weaver, 35, was arrested after being accused of negligence. She was charged with injury to a child by omission in the death of her only child, Anthony Leo Malave, at Camp Cohen Water Park in El Paso. According to the New York Post citing the El Paso Times, the tragic incident happened back in May. Witnesses described Weaver as being recklessly inattentive before her son drowned. The mother was taken into police custody on Aug. 30 in her native Indiana, where she waived extradition and was later booked into the El Paso County Jail on Sept. 22. She was eventually released on a $100,00 bond.
While some may have pointed fingers at the lifeguards for also not paying close attention to swimmers, it was noted that signs at Camp Cohen clearly state that kids 6 and younger “must be directly attended by a swimming adult” and “must be supervised by an adult within arm’s reach.” Little was pulled out of a 4-foot-deep section of the pool where he drowned by one of the 18 lifeguards who was working that day. Unfortunately, they didn’t spot the toddler quick enough as he sadly lost his life.
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More On What The Witnesses Saw
Per the outlet, one witness said Weaver was “never looking up or paying attention to anything” as she was too glued to her phone by the pool for over an hour. Investigators spoke to another witness on the day of the incident who said, “The mother was singing along to a song that was playing and she was laying down, looking at her phone approximately seven minutes before the child/victim was getting pulled out of the water,” the document states.
Speaking on the very unfortunate event, the DA Bill Hicks, who spoke with KFox15 said, “There are numerous witnesses that have come forward and have given their account that they were there at the park, they were watching, and they saw her not paying attention to her child,” Hicks said. “It’s posted in numerous places over the waterpark that any child younger than six years old needs to be attended at the park, and she wasn’t doing that.”
He added, “A lifeguard is not a babysitter. They’re a last resort in hopefully saving a life.”
Weaver has since hit back and filed a $1 million lawsuit against the city in which she claims the tragedy was the result of “gross negligence” by the park and its lifeguards. Her lawyers claimed she simply has been unfairly blamed for her baby boy’s death. The suit also alleges that the city destroyed surveillance video on the day of the drowning.
In response to that, DA Hicks said, “Every single baby death is reviewed. I’m not gonna lure myself to a back-and-forth with a civil attorney,” Hicks added. “This is criminal proceedings. It’s the state of Texas vs. Ms. Weaver. I don’t have anything to say to him.”