HAWTHORNE – Westchester County Police charged a resident of the Coachman Family Center in White Plains with attempted murder after determining she tried to drown her infant son in a bathtub last week.
La-Quanaya Ward, 29, who resides at the family shelter at 123 East Post Road, was taken into custody on Wednesday after she was released from a Westchester hospital. She had been admitted there December 4 after officers responded to the shelter the previous night on a report that a female resident was in an emotional crisis and threatening to harm her children.
During a subsequent investigation, county police detectives determined that Ward held her two-year-old son underwater in the tub until another resident intervened and rescued the child. That resident and others came to the woman’s room after hearing her making a commotion there.
Officers who responded at 10:26 p.m. last Wednesday located Ward as well as her two children, ages one and two years old, elsewhere in the facility. She was taken to a local hospital for evaluation. Westchester County Child Protective Services responded and placed the children in emergency foster care.
The investigation was turned over to detectives from the General Investigations Unit, assisted by the Forensic Investigations Unit. The criminal charge filed was the result of that investigation and consultation with the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office.
