Las Vegas woman tried to drown daughter, police say
A Las Vegas mother is facing an attempted murder charge after she told police she tried to drown her 15-month-old child, according to an arrest report released Monday.
Police said Desiree Mason, 31, called 911 on Friday to say that she’d almost drowned her daughter and needed police to come to her residence on the 5200 block of East Charleston Boulevard. Officers arrived and took Mason into custody, according to the report. The girl was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center but did not appear to suffer any major injuries.
The apartment was “kept in a manner that was unsafe and unhealthy for humans and animals” according to the report. It had rotten food, cat urine and feces and dirty dishes in the sink, police said, noting that a desk with a video game set-up appeared to be clean.
Mason later told police that she “got angry but could not explain why” and slapped her daughter, whose name was redacted in the report. She then held the child’s head under water for about 30 seconds. She later demonstrated the incident to police using a doll.
“Desiree could not explain why she felt the sudden urge to slap (her daughter) or attempt to drown her and could only say she saw red,” the report says. “Desiree stated it did not seem as if she was doing this to (her daughter) but to someone or something else.”
Police wrote in the report that children can often hold their breath for around 30 seconds, so it was likely that the girl was “at the verge of beginning to inhale water.”
Mason faces charges of attempted murder and child abuse or neglect. She is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday, according to jail records.
Contact Jonah Dylan at jdylan@reviewjournal.com. Follow @TheJonahDylan on Twitter.
