Mom livestreams before trying to kill herself and 3 kids: DA
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Shaniece Willingham (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office).

A Florida mother allegedly tried to drown herself and her three children in the deep end of a community pool — tying all of them together and hurling them into the water — in an attempt “to end her life and kill her children at the same time,” prosecutors say.

Shaniece Willingham, 24, is accused of carrying out the attempted filicide early Wednesday morning after giving her “last goodbye” to friends and family during an Instagram livestream, according to court documents. Her kids are 3, 2, and 8 months old.

“The defendant loaded her children in a wagon and walked them to the community pool while posting a live story on her Instagram page,” court documents say.

“In the video, the defendant was telling everybody this was her ‘last goodbye, and she could not take it anymore,'” the document alleges. “[Willingham] also said ‘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.'”

Prosecutors say the social media broadcast prompted relatives to rush to a pool on Sacramento Street in Valrico, where Willingham said she was, after seeing her online. Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies were called and responded at around 1:30 a.m. to find Willingham and her children still alive after being pulled from the pool by family members, a motion for pretrial detention says.

Willingham had gotten into a fight with her mother earlier in the evening and was allegedly upset that the children’s father wouldn’t pick up her and their kids after being asked to leave her mom’s residence, prosecutors say.

“[The father] said he doesn’t give a f— and he ‘ain’t doing anything,'” the motion for pretrial detention alleges. “At this point, the defendant loaded her children in a wagon and walked them to the community pool.”

Before tying her children up, Willingham allegedly called her mother on FaceTime and “told her that she loved her,” according to prosecutors. “The defendant then turned the camera around to show her mother that she was at the pool,” the detention motion says.

“The defendant sat on the side of the pool and used a rope to tie her and her children together so they could all be bound together after entering the pool,” the document alleges, noting how “neither the defendant nor any of the three victims” knew how to swim.

“[Willingham] pushed all three children and herself into the pool in an attempt to kill herself and her children,” prosecutors said. “The defendant and her children were located in the deep end of the pool, which was marked on the side as 6 feet deep.”

While speaking to cops after the incident, Willingham allegedly admitted to “wanting to end her life and kill her children at the same time,” according to prosecutors. She confessed to using a rope that had been attached to a “Life ring” — described by prosecutors as a “lifesaving flotation device in the pool area” — to tie her and her children to her “so they could all drown together.”

Willingham is facing multiple charges, including attempted murder, and was ordered to be held Thursday without bond. She has a pretrial detention hearing scheduled for Sept 29.

“This incident is nothing short of horrific,” said Sheriff Chad Chronister in a statement Thursday. “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,” Chronister blasted. “This decision was not a cry for help, it was a deliberate act of cruelty. … There is no excuse, no justification. These children were failed by their own mother, and it is only by the quick actions of their family that they are alive today.”

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