SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — Two Shelby County parents were arrested overnight on numerous charges after a little girl was found unresponsive in a swimming pool.
According to the arrest report, first responders made the scene in the 9200 block of Snoal Cove around 7 p.m. Monday, June 24.
When deputies arrived, they said paramedics were performing CPR on a three-year-old girl in the back of the ambulance. They were able to revive her and she was taken to the hospital for treatment.
The child’s father Marlon Washington told authorities he left the children with their other father Edward Cammile around 6 p.m. to go to Walmart. When he returned sometime later, he could not find the three-year-old and began searching the home.
That’s when he said he found her face down in the pool. He carried her to safety and then began CPR.
While investigating, authorities said they discovered poor living conditions inside the home. They said 10 dogs were living in kennels, which were covered in feces. An 11th “severely emaciated dog” was found outside covered in ticks. The dogs did not have food or water, deputies said.
They also found meth and a gun on the property.
Both parents were arrested and charged initially with drug possession, cruelty to animals, possession of drug paraphernalia and violation of bail conditions. Other charges are pending, authorities said.
Neighbors say the home is well known by Shelby County deputies.
“For the last year and a half the police been coming here almost every other month,” neighbor O’Neil Jones said.
Deputies said they’ve been called to the home at least twice since December, maybe more times than that, and they confirmed that earlier this month they responded to a domestic dispute call at the home.
According to bond conditions, deputies said, the two men weren’t even supposed to be around each other, much less living together.
“One pulled a gun, one pulled a knife. They were always going at it,” Jones said.
He said the couple kept things lively in the cove, even though they didn’t come out to connect with neighbors much.
“Very strange. They never talked to anyone, they never mingled,” he said.
Jones was walking his dog on Monday when the couple’s daughter nearly drowned.
“I was walking the dog about 5:30 and heard someone just hollering and wailing,” he said.
At first he says he had no idea what was going on, until he saw the ambulance coming and then, the unimaginable — a 3-year-old girl being carried out of the home dripping wet.
“I was shocked because, when they brought the baby out, if my baby was in a pool,seemed like they should be wet. They were in dry clothes. I would have jumped in the pool,” Jones said.
Neighbors are praying for the little girl and just hoping that nothing else surfaces about the house a few doors down.
