A tragic incident occurred in Rochester, NY, where a newborn baby was killed by two dogs in an attic while his teenage parents were using drugs downstairs, according to authorities, per AP News. Sulamain Hawkins and Anastasia Weaver, both 19, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges on Thursday. They are accused of leaving their 3-month-old baby alone while they went outside to smoke marijuana.
The heartbreaking event took place on August 3, when the couple placed their baby, Sulamain Hawkins Jr., to sleep on the attic floor before going outside to smoke. The couple reportedly left for about an hour while one or both of their pit bull-type dogs attacked the newborn. When they returned, they found their baby injured.
He was taken to the hospital, where he later died from
“severe trauma to his body,”
according to officials.
“The allegations here, we feel, support the recklessness that a reasonable person in these defendants’ situations would not have acted the way they did,”
Assistant DA Sara VanStrydonck said in court.
“They knew a risk and they consciously disregarded that risk.”
Hawkins and Weaver were not arrested until Wednesday. During the week before her arrest, the mother posted a troubling mix of grief and sexually provocative content on social media, reports note. Prosecutors stated that the tragic incident happened in a friend’s rented house, where the dogs were known to be kept in the attic. This is also where the young family had been staying. The tenants have since been evicted, and the dogs have been put down.
#Clique, what are your thoughts?
