Woman charged with pushing 3-year-old nephew into Lake Michigan off Navy Pier
A woman has been charged with pushing her 3-year-old nephew into Lake Michigan off Navy Pier, leaving him in “very critical” condition.
Ashlee Rezin | Sun-Times
A woman has been charged with pushing her 3-year-old nephew into Lake Michigan off Navy Pier, leaving him in “very critical” condition.
Victoria Moreno, 34, is charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery to a child, according to police. She was to appear in court later Wednesday.
The boy was pulled from the lake about 1 p.m. Monday near the 700 block of East Grand Avenue. He went into cardiac arrest and was rushed to Lurie Children’s Hospital in “very critical condition,” fire officials said.
Moreno initially told responding officers that she was only a witness, then claimed she was holding the boy’s shirt and let go because he “was acting up,” according to a police report and a source with knowledge of the investigation.
A witness told police she heard a splash and saw the child in the water. She ran to get a flotation device while another witness called 911, the report states. Moreno didn’t make an attempt to call 911 or rescue him, the report states.
Ashton King, 31, said she was walking on the pier with a friend who heard and saw the splash but didn’t see what happened before. As soon as she saw the boy in the water, King called 911, she said.
“He was ... floating on his back and just looking up at the sky, his head was the only thing that was bobbing above the water,” King told the Sun-Times.
She added: “By the time we had thrown [a life preserver] in, he had already gone under.”
Surveillance video shows Moreno pushing him toward the edge of the pier and tossing him into the water, the source with knowledge of the investigation said. The boy wasn’t expected to survive, the source said.
“Your first instinct is to jump in, jump in and save them,” said King, a mother of three who lives in suburban Oak Forest.
Moreno told officers she brought the 3-year-old to Navy Pier to “go on the rides,” the police report states.
The boy’s mother had left her son with his grandmother that day, according to the report. When the grandmother went upstairs to change, the aunt had left with the child.