A Florida mom reportedly admitted that there was no one to take care of her three young children, so “they would be safe with God” instead before allegedly doing the unimaginable. Now, she faces serious charges in a harrowing case.
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It was the evening of Sept. 24 in Valrico, a city about 14 miles from Tampa, when Shaniece Willingham got into an argument with her mother Sherrisse McCray, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said. When Willingham’s mom asked her and her three children — ages 3, 2, and 8 months — to leave, Willingham called her children’s father, Theophilus Williams, to come get them.
Williams refused to do so, according to Willingham, who said the father “doesn’t give a f*ck and he ‘ain’t doing anything.’” So she allegedly took matters into her own hands, sharing a “last goodbye” on social media because “she could not take it anymore.”
Law & Crime reported Willingham grabbed a wagon, placed her kids in it, and walked to a community pool on Sacramento Street. There, prosecutors claimed she hopped the fence and used a rope so her and her kids could all be “bound” together, but not before posting on Instagram. She allegedly told viewers that “she loved her kids so much, but she could not leave them behind because no one can take care of them, and they would be safe with God.” The mom of three also called her mother on FaceTime to show her where she was.
When Willingham, 24, saw a car approaching, that’s when she allegedly pushed her children in the “deep end of the pool” — marked six feet deep — in an “attempt to kill herself and her children.” When authorities arrived around at 1:28 a.m., family members had already rescued everyone. The uninjured children were taken to a nearby home and cops found Willingham on the pool deck.
Prosecutors say her Instagram posts prompted relatives to rush to the pool. “Neither the defendant nor any of the three victims” knew how to swim, court documents said.
Sheriff Chad Chronister called the incident “nothing short of horrific” and noted “the fear and betrayal these innocent children must have felt at the hands of the one person meant to love, care for, and protect them, is unimaginable.”
He called Willingham’s alleged decision as a “deliberate act of cruelty” and “not a cry for help. Mental health challenges may provide an explanation, but there is no excuse, no justification.” The sheriff said Willingham’s “children were failed by their own mother.”
Now, Willingam, who reportedly admitted she wanted them “all [to] drown together,” faces three charges of attempted murder. She’s been held without bond and her pretrial detention hearing is Sept. 29.
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