Police: Girl dies after dad tries to drown her, siblings
Associated Press
DURHAM, N.C.
A 3-year-old girl has died days after her father tried to drown her and her siblings in an apartment complex pond, police said Wednesday.
The girl was fully submerged when an off-duty deputy sheriff pulled her from the pond Sunday night. She died in a hospital Wednesday, said Durham Police spokeswoman Kammie Michael.
Alan Tysheen Eugene Lassiter is charged with three counts of attempted murder after being accused of trying to kill the girl, her sister and their 7-year-old brother. Lassiter is jailed on a bond of $2 million and is awaiting a court hearing next month.
Lassiter’s 5-year-old daughter was rescued from the pond, and she has been released from the hospital, police said. The 7-year-old boy got away from Lassiter and ran for help, police said.
On Sunday night, Lassiter flagged down passers-by at the Audubon Lake apartments and told them he thought his son had been kidnapped and needed help finding him, apartment- complex manager Sylvia Scott said Tuesday.
It wasn’t until later that Lassiter told Scott and a 911 operator that he’d thrown his 3- and 5-year-old daughters in the pond, Scott said. The girls were pulled from the water by Durham County deputy David Earp, who lives nearby.
In a 911 call, Lassiter acknowledged trying to drown the children, and between expletive-laden rage and distraught sobs, he told a dispatcher officials had tried to take away his kids as he dealt with a personal problem.