No criminal charges to be filed in 2-year-old's drowning in Harrison
No criminal charges will be filed in the July drowning of a 2-year-old New Kensington boy in Harrison, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday.
Cassius Alexander Saulsgiver died July 20, four days after he was found in an in-ground swimming pool at his grandfather’s Opal Court home.
Mike Manko, a spokesman for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., said county police “did a very thorough and diligent investigation” into Saulsgiver’s death.
“After reviewing all of the reports and evidence concerning what happened on July 20, our office cannot find any egregious circumstances that would rise to the level of criminal negligence and therefore we have recommended that no charges be filed in connection with the death of Cassius,” Manko said.
Saulsgiver’s mother, Dominique Kemp, said she dropped her son off at her father’s home so he could watch the boy while she went to work at Sunnyside, a medical marijuana dispensary in New Kensington.
County police previously said Saulsgiver got into the pool after having been left unattended for a brief time in the living room. He was flown to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where he was declared brain dead.
The Allegheny County medical examiner determined his death was an accidental drowning.
Kemp’s friends and co-workers at Sunnyside held a fundraiser in early August to help her pay medical and funeral bills.
Brian C. Rittmeyer, a Pittsburgh native and graduate of Penn State University's Schreyer Honors College, has been with the Trib since December 2000. He can be reached at brittmeyer@triblive.com.
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