Police are investigating a baby's death as a homicide and say it was his five-year-old cousin who drowned him.

It happened at a home in Kansas City, but the little boy, 18-month-old Jermane Johnson Jr., was from St. Louis. Kansas City police tell NewsChannel 5 the five-year-old girl told them she drowned her cousin in the bathtub to make him stop crying. It happened Friday at a home in central Kansas City.

Police say little Jermane lived in St. Louis but had been in the care of relatives for the past couple of weeks.

A 16-year-old girl was babysitting four kids that night, ranging in age from Jermane, who was a year and a half, to a 12-year-old. An adult relative had left the house to pick up the boy's father who was coming to Kansas City from St. Louis on a bus to get his son.

Police say the five-year-old told social workers she intentionally drowned Jermane in a bathtub because he cried too much.


Police say the 16-year-old babysitter suffers from a mental disorder. She was sleeping when the drowning happened at around midnight Friday.


SOURCE

omg... That's awful. But the 5 year old didn't know what she was doing..

The five year old shouldn't be charged with anything. I need to ask, if the baby was crying that long/loud how did the sleeping babysitter not here it? If she has a mental disorder then clearly she shouldn't have been watching the baby. The five year old is not at fault here.

so sad

I thnk the babysitter killed the baby since she suffers from a mental disorder. It makes sense.

Don't tell me we have another Casey Anthony case on our hands...filled with suspicions..

Oh my God. This is terrible. But why the hell was the babysitter sleeping anyways? Also, depending on the mental illness, was the babysitter really the best pick? I'm not trying to discriminate, but if it threatens the safety of children, it's hard not to realize that.

The problem is, who is to blame? You can't exactly hold a 5 year old accountable for their actions, both legally and mentally. A 5 year old doesn't fully understand the concept of life and death. And the babysitter should have taken better care. Who the **** falls asleep and leaves young children alone like that? If anything, the babysitter needs to be charged with neglect. As for the 5 year old, they'll likely need counseling and probably won't fully understand what happened until they're much older. It's really sad to hear stories like this.

First of all , Why would you leave 4 children in the care of a 16 year old who is mentally challenged, there has to be more than one mentally challenged individual in this equation.

Some people

Whether it makes sense or not, doesn't matter since that's NOT TRUE

Who knows, maybe all of them went to sleep, but then the 5 year old and little baby woke up or something.

so many bad news latley

You can't be charged for any crime under like 8 or 9 years of age. The 5 year old is completely safe legally.

aww

Yes!

This said 5 year old should receive the same fate as that poor baby

This is sad, but I cannot picture a 5-year old being charged in any case. She probably didn't "know" what she was doing. And I cannot picture the 16-year old being charged given her disorder. The person who left her in charge could face some penalties, but I can't see that going far either. This is just a sad situation.

I'm pretty sure 5 year olds know not to drown living things.

For some reason I don't believe that she really drowned him because "he wouldn't stop crying." It sounds like she was coached by someone. IDK! How would she know what drowning is anyways? Something sounds off about this whole situanerio.