N.C. mom charged in son’s storm death
Woman drove past police barriers with toddler in back seat
On Sept. 16, Dazia Lee of Charlotte, N.C., lost her son, Kaiden, during Hurricane Florence when floodwaters rushed her car.
She was charged in the toddler’s death this week.
The Union County Sheriff ’s Office charged Lee, 20, with involuntary manslaughter and driving on a closed or unopened highway.
Thinking the storm was over, Lee had strapped Kaiden Lee-Welch, 1, into his car seat and headed toward her grandmother’s house. She told The Washington Post that she saw cars emerging from a road that had barricades along the sides and thought it was safe.
But after she drove past the barricades, a rush of water hit her car, and when she tried to escape with Kaiden, she lost her grip on him. His body was found the next day.
“The evidence would support the filing of charges,” said Tony Underwood, chief communications officer for the sheriff’s office. Referring to a news conference at the New Salem Volunteer Fire Department the day Kaiden was found, he added, “The facts were pretty well laid out based on that.”
At that conference, Union County Sheriff Eddie Cathey said barricades had been put up on the road. “Whether someone else moved those barricades and she drove around ’em, I can’t say,” he said.
Lee was served with a summons to appear in court Nov. 20. The charge, a felony, carries a 13- to 16month potential sentence, Underwood said.
To Corine Mack, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg branch of the NAACP, the decision to charge Lee smacks of racism.
“She was attempting to get her child out of the car, not to have her child die, and to charge her on top of the fact that she is in mourning for the rest of her life, that represents implicit bias, insensitivity and even racism,” Mack said.
Blacks are 21⁄ times as likely to be arrested as white people, according to a report by the Center for American Progress. Dazia Lee, 20,lost her son, Kaiden, 1, when her car was caught in floodwaters during Hurricane Florence.