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| FILE - In this March 4, 2014 file image made from video, a lifeguard carries one of the three children rescued from a minivan that their mother, Ebony Wilkerson, drove into the Atlantic in Daytona Beach, Fla. Wilkerson as charged Friday with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse, though she has denied trying to harm anyone, authorities said. |
ORLANDO, Fla.
(AP) -- After she drove her minivan into the crashing waves of the
Atlantic Ocean, authorities say a pregnant South Carolina woman tried to
call off bystanders hustling to rescue her three screaming children
from the water that was rushing in through the windows.
Ebony
Wilkerson, who was charged with attempted murder Friday, said "everyone
was OK" and left the van with her children inside, an affidavit said.
The bystanders and beach safety officers, paying no mind to her urgings,
pulled the two girls and a boy, ages 3, 9 and 10, through the windows
Tuesday on Daytona Beach.
Later, Wilkerson
denied trying to hurt her children, telling investigators she was
driving too close to the water, "and the waves pulled her in," according
to the charging affidavit.
Her children told investigators another story.
"Mom tried to kill us," they told detectives, according to the document. "Mom is crazy."
Volusia
County Sheriff Ben Johnson said the 32-year-old Wilkerson of North
Charleston has been charged with three counts each of first-degree
attempted murder and child abuse. She was in the custody of the
sheriff's office after being hospitalized for a mental evaluation since
dunking the van into the surf.
The children
told authorities they had come to Florida from South Carolina earlier in
the week to escape their father. They described a history of violence
between their parents, and they said their mother had been "acting crazy
and speaking to Jesus" since they had come to stay with Wilkerson's
sister in Daytona Beach.
The sister, Jessica
Harrell, didn't return a phone call from The Associated Press, but she
expressed her concerns about Wilkerson's mental health to a 911
dispatcher only hours before the minivan ended up in the ocean.
The
children said that while driving south on the beach, their mother
pointed at the ocean, locked the doors, rolled up the electric windows
and then jerked the steering wheel, sending the minivan into the waves.
One
of the children asked her what she was doing, and she said: "`I am
keeping us all safe,'" according to the affidavit. The boy tried to
wrestle the steering wheel away from Wilkerson.
"She
told them to close their eyes and go to sleep. She was trying to take
them to a better place," Johnson said at a news conference.
A child also lowered the windows and the siblings yelled for help, attracting the bystanders.
"I've got to do this," Wilkerson told bystander Stacy Robinson as he attempted to intervene, according to the affidavit.
One
of the rescuers, Tim Tesseneer, said Wilkerson's eyes were wide open
and she looked "possessed." Wilkerson tried to prevent a beach safety
officer from entering the vehicle to rescue the toddler who was the last
to be removed from the minivan, Tesseneer told detectives. The children
are with the Department of Children and Families.
Harrell
told the dispatcher she had tried to take her sister to a hospital the
day before the minivan ended up in the surf but Wilkerson had checked
herself out. She said Wilkerson had been abused by her husband and that
police should check on her.
"She's getting a little bit better, but she's still not all there," Harrell said.
Two
days before what happened on the beach, Wilkerson told North Charleston
police that she was in a violent altercation with her husband of 14
years at a hotel room in Myrtle Beach and gone to a hospital for
treatment, according to an incident report. She also told police that
after she packed up the car and kids at their apartment, her husband
made a motion as if he was going to grab her, but she got into the car
before he could, the report said.
She then
went to Wal-Mart to cash in some coins so she'd have money for the trip.
She reported that she felt a man was staring at her and followed her at
the store and to the North Charleston City Hall where police were
called. Officers said they gave her a form for a protective order and
she refused being taken to a shelter since she was going to Florida.
Myrtle
Beach police say they are investigating what happened at the hotel but
no charges were filed. Phone numbers for Wilkerson's husband were
disconnected.
Harrell told the dispatcher that
Wilkerson was "talking about Jesus and how there are demons in my house
and how I'm trying to control her but I'm trying to keep them safe."
Harrell said she had taken Wilkerson's car keys away but her sister had found another set and driven off with the children.
After
the call to dispatch, Daytona Beach officers stopped Wilkerson's black
Honda Odyssey and she expressed fear that her husband would be coming to
Florida to harm her and her children.
The children were sitting quietly, smiling, and showed no signs of distress, the police report said.
"It
was clear during my conversation that Wilkerson was suffering from some
form of mental illness, but she was lucid," the Daytona Beach police
officer said in the report.
