Mom Tried To Drown 2-Year-Old In Shelter Bathtub: Police

WHITE PLAINS, NY — A woman living at the family shelter in White Plains is accused of trying to drown her 2-year-old son in a bathtub. Westchester County police charged the woman Wednesday after she was released from a local hospital.

La-Quanaya Ward, 29, who lived at the Coachman Family Center at 123 East Post Road, faces a charge of attempted murder. She had been admitted to the hospital Dec. 4 after officers responded to the shelter the previous night on a report that a female resident was in emotional crisis and threatening to harm her children.

The officers who responded at 10:26 p.m. that night located Ward as well as her two children, ages 1 and 2 years old, elsewhere in the facility. She was taken to a local hospital for evaluation. Westchester County Child Protectives Services took the children and placed them in emergency foster care.

During their subsequent investigation, county police detectives determined that Ward held her 2-year-old son under water in the tub until another resident intervened and rescued the child. That resident and others came to the woman’s room after hearing her making a commotion there.

The investigation was turned over to detectives from the General Investigations Unit, assisted by the Forensic Investigations Unit. The criminal charge filed was the result of that investigation and consultation with the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office.