What to Know
- Little Meilani Hernandez was pronounced dead Nov. 6 after being taken to a hospital in Brooklyn
- Sources familiar with the case told NBC 4 New York at the time she may have been left unattended in a bathtub with her 3-year-old brother
- Authorities say both parents were home at the time of the baby's death; they were arrested Thursday in the case
The parents of a 10-month-old Brooklyn girl who drowned after allegedly being briefly left unattended in a bathtub with her 3-year-old brother have been arrested five months after the tragedy.
Roxanne and Daniel Hernandez, ages 24 and 21 respectively, were arrested Thursday on charges of reckless endangerment and acting in a manner injurious to a child younger than 17 in connection with the ongoing investigation after the medical examiner ruled the infant's death a homicide.
The medical examiner's office confirmed the cause of death was drowning.
Authorities responding to a 911 call at the couple's Henry Street home in Red Hook the night of Nov. 6 found little Meilani Hernandez unconscious. She was pronounced dead at a hospital. At the time, authorities said both parents had been home and the infant may have been in a bathtub with her brother.
Neighbors said the children's parents knocked on one of their doors at one point and the family inside helped give the baby CPR before paramedics arrived. By the time police got there, paramedics were administering CPR.
Neighbor Yvette Espineal told NBC 4 New York in the days after the child's death that the baby had good parents. Other neighbors, in tears, described the young Hernandez couple as loving.
"My next-door neighbor came in and told us she didn't make it and everybody started crying because it hurt so much knowing that a 10-month-old baby drowned," Espineal said.
Information on attorneys for Roxanne and Hernandez was not immediately available.
