Left: Deidre Wheeler. Right: Lacharles Ramsey (Wichita County Jail).
A man and woman from the Lone Star State are facing felonies after their pit bull allegedly mauled and killed the 2-year-old girl they were supposed to be babysitting but instead left and put an 11-year-old in charge.
Deidre Wheeler and her husband, Lacharles Ramsey, are each facing several charges of child endangerment and injury to a child. Police in Wichita Falls in North Texas responded to a 911 call around 5 p.m. on Dec. 29 about a pit bull attacking the child. The girl was “bleeding badly and was non-responsive,” police wrote in a probable cause arrest affidavit. Paramedics rushed the girl to the hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead.
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Investigators spent about a month unfurling the tragic version of events. According to the affidavit, Wheeler has six children of her own and, along with Ramsey, agreed to watch two other children, ages 2 and 8 months. She dropped off the two children she was watching at her home, where her oldest kids, 19 and 16, assumed babysitting responsibilities from about noon to 4 p.m. When Wheeler returned, she picked up the 16-year-old and 19-year-old and took them to an event, leaving the 11-year-old in charge, the affidavit said.
During the 45 minutes she and her husband were gone, the pit bull escaped from the kennel and went after the 8-month-old. The other kids were able to rescue the 8-month-old from the dog. But the pit bull then attacked the 2-year-old. Wheeler and Ramsey returned home during the attack, but the child was already seriously injured. They hopped in their car to take the girl to the hospital and met emergency responders on the way.
The 11-year-old later told cops she was making dinner for the other children when she called her mom and asked her to come home because the kids were “out of control.” That’s when the dog got loose, per the affidavit.
Investigators learned the dog had escaped before and bit one of the other children about a year prior. Ramsey and Wheeler “abandoned” the kids and “failed to provide appropriate supervision” despite a “known aggressive pit bull” being present in the house, cops wrote. Wheeler is in the Wichita County jail on a $450,000 bond, while Ramsey has a $300,000 bond.
The Wichita Falls Times Record News reports the dog has been euthanized. Authorities have not released the name of the victim.
