The woman told police her foster son was “acting up” so she restrained him by sitting on him for five minutes.
A 10-year-old boy died after his foster mum sat on him for five minutes for “acting up” — crushing him under her 154 kilo frame.
Jennifer Wilson, 48, from Indiana in the US, informed police that her foster son, Dakota Stevens had run away from her home that morning following an argument, and that he was “acting up”.
After she picked him up from a neighbour’s house, Wilson said the 41-kilo boy threw himself onto the front lawn outside her home and threatened to leave again, according to The New York Post.
She then restrained him and sat on his midsection, close to his neck and head, while she called his caseworker.
The little boy screamed the whole time, according to the affidavit and ring camera footage of the incident.
Dakota Stevens, 10, died when his foster mum sat on him for “acting up”. Picture: The New York Post/Hayden Hetzel
Eventually, the boy stopped moving, as reported in court documents seen by Express US. However, Wilson told the authorities that she believed the boy was pretending to be injured.
“Are you faking?” she was heard asking Dakota in the 20-second clip.
It wasn’t until she noticed that his eyelids had gone pale when she rolled him over that she realised something was seriously wrong.
She frantically instructed one of her other children to call 911 and could be heard shouting the boy’s name repeatedly in the footage when she realised he had stopped breathing.
The Department of Child Services had allocated the child to her care just one month before the incident.
Foster mum Jennifer Wilson, who weighed in at 154kg, allegedly sat on the child until he stopped breathing. Picture: Berrien County Sheriff’s Department
When the police arrived, they found Dakota motionless and without a pulse, while his foster mum appeared “visibly distraught”.
The boy was flown to a nearby children’s hospital but could not be saved, and two days later, he was taken off life support.
She could face six years in prison if found guilty.
She had been fostering three other children in her home, but a spokesperson from the Department of Child Services confirmed to the media that her foster parent licence is currently suspended and is under review for permanent revocation.
