A Connecticut grandmother who hanged herself days after claiming to have drowned her grandson in a bathtub told 911 dispatchers that she was psychotic and wanted the police to shoot her, according to a transcript of the call released by the West Hartford Police Tuesday.
Aidan Blake Halter, 2, drowned in a bathtub in his home in Foxbridge, Conn., Friday while his grandmother, 62-year-old Marcia Maglisco, was babysitting. Maglisco said during the call that the toddler slipped and hit his head during the bath, and that instead of helping him, she left him under the water.
"I need the police to come and arrest me, I drowned my grandson," Maglisco told dispatchers. Asked by the dispatcher if she would or could do anything to revive the child, Maglisco said, "I tried. I can't. I'm just a grandmother. I have mental problems...I'm a very bad..."
Click here to read the full transcript.
After repeatedly telling the dispatcher that her grandson was "deceased" and could not be saved, Maglisco described the events surrounding the boy's death.
"I'm psychotic...he was in the tub, he slipped, he banged his head and I just left him," she said.
"I want the police to shoot me, if they could," Maglisco said later in the call.
Maglisco was the toddler's maternal grandmother, according to the Hartford Courant, but throughout the phone call referred to her daughter--the boy's mother--as "the mother."
She also resisted all suggestions from the dispatcher that she take any steps to try to save or revive the boy, at one point saying that there was no need to send an ambulance. Authorities who responded to the scene Friday said Maglisco tried to prevent them from resuscitating the boy, and had to be restrained while paramedics performed CPR, the Courant reported.
According to the transcript, Maglisco told the dispatcher that she had removed the boy from the tub and wanted to dress him before his mother got home. She said she had called the mother and told her that the boy was dead.
Maglisco was charged with risk of injury to a minor, but hanged herself in her Newington, Conn., home Monday, a day before she was to appear in court on those charges. Her death has been ruled a suicide.
Police told the Courant Tuesday that after her arrest, Maglisco had refused to answer questions or cooperate.
It was not clear Tuesday if Maglisco had a history of mental health problems. She was taken to the Hartford Hospital for psychiatric evaluation Friday, but was not kept overnight. She was arrested Friday night after her release from the hospital and kept under police observation overnight. She was released Saturday on $250,000 bail, the Courant reported.
The circumstances surrounding Aidan Halter's death also remained unclear. According to Maglisco's call to 911, the boy fell, hit his head and slipped under the water, and Maglisco, for reasons that remain unclear, left him there. According to the transcript, she called 911 10 minutes after the boy drowned.
Authorities said Aidan's death is still under investigation.
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