image: Irving PD
The mother of the three Irving children who drowned at an apartment complex pool last month was using her cellphone and didn’t notice her kids go under water, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Police said 30-year-old Patricia Allen was arrested Friday in connection with the drowning deaths. She is being held in the Irving City Jail on one count of injury to a child. Bond has been set at $50,000.
Police spokesman Officer James McLellan said the one charge represents all three drowning victims. The injury to a child charge is a second-degree felony which is punishable with two to 20 years in prison.
“That was recklessness,” McLellan said. “She should have known that was behavior that could have led to the result to it did.”
The deaths were originally being investigated as accidental deaths, but during the course of the investigation they discovered “facts and evidence” of a crime.
In a news release, police said they consulted with the Dallas County district attorney’s office which made the decision to file a criminal complaint.
Ten-year-old August Smith died June 24 at Children’s Medical Center Dallas after being pulled from one of the pools. Her two brothers, 9-year-old Treshawn Smith and 11-year-old Anthony Smith, died the next day.
Allen, had her back turned to the three while she played with two of her other children, Irving police said. She began screaming for help after she realized the three older children had sunk underwater.
Rescue personnel had trouble finding one of the children because the water was cloudy.
But according to an arrest warrant affidavit, two witnesses reported they saw Allen in the pool on the steps facing the deep end of the pool with her two younger children, but could not see the other three.
The witnesses said that as they were walking to their car, the water was calm and they did not see any bubbles or splashing in the deep end and did not realize the children were in the water.
According to the affidavit, the witnesses told police that even though Allen was facing the deep end of the pool, she did not realize her children had disappeared.
The document states that Allen only realized her children were missing when the two witnesses walked inside the pool area.
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Updated at 6 p.m. on July 11: Patricia Allen posted $50,000 bond at the Irving City Jail on Saturday morning, police spokesman James McLellan said.
