Atlanta Police Department through FOX 5
A witness called 911 after noticing the unresponsive boy's head hanging out the back seat window and trying to wake up the mother passed out in the front passenger seat.
A Georgia mother was arrested on Monday and charged in the April death of her seven-year-old son, Mazi Simmons, who was found unresponsive with his head trapped in her car window while she was allegedly passed out in the front seat.
Kandice Grace, 32, is now facing charges of second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children, according to Law & Crime, for the tragic incident on the morning of April 6 after a witness called 911 when he saw the child's head hanging out of the car.
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View StoryThe witness who called police that morning said that Grace had come to his house the night before at approximately 10:30 or 11:30 p.m., but had left her three children outside in her car, telling him she didn't want them to come into his house, according to the probable cause affidavit reviewed by WSB-TV.
The witness said that she didn't stay long, but when he went outside the next morning at around 8:30 a.m., her car was still in the parking lot, as detailed by WAGA. He immediately noticed Simmons' head hanging motionless out of the back window. He said that at this point, he began banging on the window to wake Grace up, who was unconscious in the passenger side of the front seat.
After the witness called 911, police arrived on the scene where they found the unresponsive child with his head still stuck outside the back seat window. Two younger siblings were also found in the car, but they were unharmed.
Simmons was rushed to Children's' Healthcare of Atlanta, but was reportedly pronounced dead shortly after arrival. The Fulton County Medical Examiner determined his cause of death as accidental as the result of strangulation, according to WXIA.
Investigators said that while they were interviewing Grace at the scene, she kept passing out while holding her youngest child. In response to this, they obtained a warrant to test her blood and urine.
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View StoryOn August 8, those results came in from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, which determined that Grace had tested positive for opioids and THC. As a result, investigators are alleging that Grace was high while driving with her three young children in the car, and this was the cause of her passing out, which subsequently left them unsupervised.
The arrest warrant reviewed by WXIA states that the lack of supervision over the children is what allowed Simmons to become trapped in the car window in the first place, leading to his eventual death.
Grace has been booked into the Fulton County Jail without bond.
