TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Mom Arrested For Murder of Three Children; Blames Web Site

Mom Arrested For Murder of Three Children; Blames Web Site

Jordan Robertson (ap@telecom-digest.org)
Thu, 20 Oct 2005 11:42:39 -0500

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, Associated Press Writer

A woman who tossed her three young children off a pier into San
Francisco Bay near Fishermen's Wharf has been arrested, authorities
said Thursday, and the Coast Guard searched for the bodies of two of
the children.

The body of a third child was recovered Wednesday.

Lashaun Harris, 23, of Oakland, was booked on three counts of murder
and three counts of assault on a child with great bodily injury,
according to Susan Fahey, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Sheriff's
Department. Harris remained in custody early Thursday with no court
date set, she said. Harris' children were identified as Trayshaun
Harris, 6, Travante Greely, 2, and Joshua Harris, 1.

A child's body was found about four hours after a witness reported
seeing a woman drop the children into the bay near Pier 7, said
Jonathan Guerra of the Coast Guard. The body was not immediately
identified.

While rescuers searched for the children Wednesday night, an empty
stroller was visible on the pier. A small inflatable Coast Guard boat
hugged the water front as rescuers used hand-held flashlights to
search under the pier. Larger Coast Guard and San Francisco police
boats searched the water with high-powered flashlights.

Mayor Gavin Newsom who came to the scene to get briefed by
authorities, telling reporters, "I'm sick to my stomach," before
leaving, after hearing the evidence authorities presented.

Lashaun Harris told authorities that 'someone she chatted with on the
internet' had told her to throw her children into the water, the San
Francisco Chronicle reported. It was not immediately known whether
she had an attorney, nor who this person was who had told her to drown
her children.

Asia Powell, who identified herself as Harris' cousin, said Harris was
taking medicine for a mental illness.

"I know that she would never hurt her kids," she told KPIX-TV. "I know
that."

Harris had been staying with her children at a Salvation Army shelter
in Oakland, the Chronicle reported.

"I just talked to her yesterday," Mary Ann Ramirez, the shelter's
social services manager, told the newspaper Wednesday. "We had our
usual, 'How are you doing, how's the kids.' I would never have guessed
in a million years that today she would do that."

The pier is in the Embarcadero area, which draws tourists to the
historic Ferry Building within view of Coit Tower and the landmark
Transamerica pyramid. It's about a mile from Fishermen's Wharf.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

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