By Chantal Da Silva - NBC News
A school bus supervisor in New Jersey has been charged in the death of a 6-year-old girl with special needs who suffocated with the harness that secured her to her wheelchair without the person in charge of her safety noticing, according to the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office.
Amanda Davila, 26, of New Brunswick, was arrested and charged days after Monday's incident. That day, authorities responded to an emergency call about an unconscious child. Upon arrival, paramedics performed CPR on the girl, then took her to an intensive care unit at a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly after, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
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The minor died. NBC News
An investigation revealed that the young woman was sitting in her wheelchair in the back of the bus on her way to school; the chair had been secured by the bus monitor, according to the Prosecutor's Office.
During the trip, a series of bumps in the road caused the girl to sink into the wheelchair, and the four-point harness that held her constricted her neck blocking her airway.
While drowning, Davila was sitting at the front of the bus and using her cell phone with headphones, which is a "violation of policies and procedures" according to the Attorney General's Office.
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Davila was arrested without incident Wednesday and charged with second-degree involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child. She is being held in the county jail awaiting a court hearing.
The girl was born with an unusual chromosomal disorder known as Emanuel syndrome, which prevented her from speaking or walking. His family vowed to do everything they could to ensure something like this never happens again, NBC News in New York reported.
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The girl's father, Wali Williams, said his daughter "had no oxygen to the brain for almost 40 minutes." "Do you understand the image of our daughter that stuck in our minds the last time we saw her? What did we have to go through?" he told NBC News.
"She was the sweetest girl they could ever meet," explained her mother, Namjah Nash Williams. "He had the sweetest laughter, little dimples and had to endure so much in his six years of life," she said.
"That she was taken from us that way, that had nothing to do with her condition," she said, "I will see to it that this never happens again, without there is anything I can do."