6-Year-Old Girl Found Dead in Bathtub, Mother Charged

The mother of a 6-year-old girl found dead in a bathtub of water on Friday has been arrested and charged with assault and reckless endangerment.

According to The Gothamist, Karla Espinal, 26, was taken into custody as the girl’s father accompanied her to Brookdale Hospital Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

No further details about what happened to the girl have been released.

Police officers were still on the sceen at the Brooklyn home Saturday morning, and family members reached by phone declined to speak about the incident.

Emmanuel Pichardo, manager of the supermarket nearby where the girl’s father worked, said he received alarming texts from the dad shortly before he was due to come to work.

“‘I’m in the hospital, they killed my daughter,’” the father wrote in Spanish. “‘I’m going crazy… let’s see if God sends a miracle.’”

Vincent Abad, who lives nearby, said neighbors are shocked.

“You know, they looked like a good family,” he said.

Espinal’s official charges are assault in the second degree, acting in a manner injurious to a child, and reckless endangerment, NYPD said.

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