BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — A Bloomington couple was charged Tuesday with second-degree manslaughter for neglect of a child in the drowning death of their 21-month-old son.
Eddy Pierre Louis, 54, and wife Sabina Pierre Louis, 25, were both charged in the death of Asher Pierre Louis and are expected to make their first court appearance Wednesday.
According to the complaint, police were called to Fairview Southdale Hospital around 10:20 a.m. Saturday morning about the death of a child. Eddy Pierre Louis and Sabina Pierre Louis were both present at the hospital, and while their stories of the incident were similar, there were enough inconsistencies to continue investigating.
Eddy Pierre Louis claimed he went to Cub Foods after 8 a.m. and when they returned to the apartment, he and Sabina Pierre Louis went to the apartment storage room. Upon returning to the apartment, Eddy said he had their four-year-old child in the bathroom with the water running. He then found Asher floating in the bathtub and attempted CPR before taking him to the hospital.
Police obtained surveillance video from Cub Foods and Walmart, after officials found Walmart shopping bags with groceries in the kitchen.
The videos showed both parents arriving at Walmart at 8:03 a.m. and then leaving the store at 8:48 a.m. The couple is then seen at Cub Foods at 8:58 a.m. and not leaving until 9:32 a.m. Given the distance the two stores are from the couple's apartment building, police believe the couple returned to their apartment around 9:45 a.m., leaving the children unsupervised for almost two hours.
Police confronted the couple with the new evidence and both admitted to lying. They said the children were asleep when they both left the apartment and didn't think they would wake up. When they returned, the oldest child was still sleeping but they heard their four-year-old in the bathroom, where they discovered Asher in the bathtub.
