NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A 6-year-old girl died on Friday afternoon after officers found her unconscious in a water-filled bathtub in Brooklyn, and police have charged her mother in relation to the death.
Karla Espinal, 26, is charged with second-degree assault, second-degree reckless endangerment and acting in a manner injurious to a child, police said. She was arrested just before 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Police responded to Espinal’s residence on Elton Street, near Ridgewood Avenue in Highland Park, at about 1:30 p.m. Friday and discovered the girl unresponsive in the bathtub.
Medics transported the child to Brookdale Hospital Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.
The victim has yet to be identified by officials and an investigation into her death—which is being considered suspicious—is ongoing, police said.
An autopsy by the medical examiner will determine her exact cause of death. The death has not yet been classified a homicide, pending the autopsy report.
Two law enforcement officials speaking anonymously to the New York Times said that the child had blood clots in her eyes when she was found by police, suggesting the possibility of a struggle.
The girl’s father worked at the Bravo Supermarket around the corner from where she died, according to multiple reports. He was supposed to relieve his manager Emmanuel Pichardo that afternoon, but sent texts explaining the situation and claiming that his daughter was killed.
“[He] said, ‘Somebody killed my daughter,’” Pichardo told the New York Daily News. “He told me he was feeling crazy right now.”