Girl, 4, struggled as Tampa mother left her to drown in river

TAMPA, Fla. — Moments before her mother tossed her into the murky water, little Je’Hyrah Daniels began to scream, police say.

It was about 4 p.m. Thursday when a witness watched Shakayla Denson “forcefully remove” the small girl from a car, according to the report released Friday, providing new details about Denson’s arrest in the apparent drowning death of her 4-year-old daughter.

The child was “screaming loudly and was not cooperating” with Denson, the report says.

As two witnesses watched, Denson, 26, dragged the screaming girl by the arm toward the river and then into the water. Then Denson began to scream, too, as she picked up the girl, pulled her close to her chest and walked farther from the riverbank into deeper water, the report says.

Witnesses later told Tampa police that the water was near the top of Denson’s shoulder when she let go of the child. The girl began to float away. “The defendant then turned around away from the child and began to swim to shore,” the report says.

Witnesses saw the girl’s head and hands rising above the water’s surface, then disappear.

Denson got out of the river near where she entered and walked away. She was detained by a Tampa police officer about a half mile away from where she had parked a Nissan Altima.

Tampa police divers started searching the river at 4:16 and found the girl unresponsive at 4:30, Police Chief Brian Dugan said in a Friday morning news conference. She was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital and pronounced dead at 4:49 p.m., the report says. Hospital staff told police Je’Hyrah likely drowned but an autopsy will confirm the cause of death.

Investigators later learned the Altima had been stolen about 3 p.m. from a lot. One witness at the lot told police that Denson “forcefully pushed” a girl into the back seat of the Altima, the arrest report says. That same witness tried to stop Denson from leaving but was struck by the car. The witness wasn’t injured, according to police.

Denson was booked Thursday night into the Hillsborough County jail charges of first degree murder, aggravated child abuse and grand theft auto. In her first appearance in court Friday morning, a judge ordered her to be held without bail.

Dugan said investigators were still interviewing Denson’s friends, family and neighbors to try to answer a confounding question: Why?

“We’re going to have to figure out what her mindset was that took her and put her in a place where she would leave a 4-year-old to drown in the Hillsborough River,” Dugan said.

Dugan said he didn’t know if Denson has mental health issues. She lived in the Silver Oak Apartments, about six miles east of where she went into the river.

Denson has two prior arrests, in 2016 and 2017, both for failing to appear in court, once for a petty theft charge, and the other for a charge of driving with a suspended license.

Child protective investigators with the Sheriff’s Office began an investigation of Denson on June 19 because of concerns she was not adequately supervising her child. The case was closed July 31 with no finding of maltreatment, abuse or neglect.