Mom Fatally Strikes Her Daughter, 6, With Boat Propeller

Mom was about to pull dad on wakeboard, didn't realize their daughter was in the water
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 31, 2023 3:00 AM CDT
Mom Fatally Strikes Her Daughter, 6, With Boat Propeller
   (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)

A day out on the lake turned unimaginably horrific in Arizona on Friday when a little girl's mother accidentally hit the child with a boat propeller, killing her. Police say two families, making up a group of 12 people total, went out around 7am on a boat on Lake Pleasant in Maricopa County. About four hours later, a 911 call came in from the group, NBC News reports. Sheriff's deputies and fire department personnel responded, meeting the group at the marina, where they had brought an injured 6-year-old whose leg had been amputated by the boat's propeller. She was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead, CNN reports. Her mother had been driving the boat, about to pull the girl's father onto a wakeboard, when the tragedy took place.

"Witnesses at the scene confirmed that the child's mother was operating the boat when she began to drive and, unbeknownst to the family, the child had somehow entered the water," the sheriff's office says in a press release. "The father of the child was in the water holding onto a wakeboard when he noticed someone in the water and swam to the child." He realized it was his own little girl. "The incident remains under investigation and impairment does not appear to be a factor as MCSO detectives continue to investigate," the sheriff's office says. All parties were wearing life jackets. (More Arizona stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X