Clearwater Police Arrest Woman For Child Neglect After Death Of 7-Year-Old.Â
Clearwater Police detectives arrested a woman for child neglect Sunday after the death of a 7-year-old boy.
Shantay Belcher, age 33, was booked in to the Pinellas County Jail after the death of the child.
Belcher called 911 from 1450 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., Apt. 302, at about 8:45 a.m. Sunday to report that her boyfriend’s son was unresponsive.
Crews from Clearwater Fire & Rescue performed resuscitation efforts on the boy, who was then taken to Morton Plant Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 10 a.m.
Detectives were able to determine that the boy had been unresponsive for 12 hours while Belcher did not seek help.
It was brought to her attention that the child was waking up and and was “breathing funny.” She was unable to wake him up so she put the boy in a bathtub and left him in cold water for several hours. She checked on him overnight a couple of times and found him still non-responsive. She called the boy’s father, who was at work, at about 8 a.m. when she realized the youngster was not breathing.
She did not call 911 until the father came home shortly thereafter.
Belcher could not explain to detectives why she did not summon medical help and later said that she should have called 911 sooner.
The Department of Children and Families is also investigating.