Police Won’t Charge Mother At Centre Of Harambe Killing, Because She Wasn’t “Smoking Crack”
The mother of the three-year-old boy who fell into Harambe’s gorilla enclosure will not face criminal charges, ABC News reports.
Why? Because she wasn’t “smoking crack” at the time of her child’s escape. Hard to fault that logic.
Last week, after the widespread outrage that met Cincinnati Zoo’s decision to take lethal action against Harambe, it was revealed that police were considering charges against the mother of the child.
(A petition with more than 500,000 signatures was particularly critical of the parents for their role in the incident, citing “negligence”.)
Now, an Ohio prosecutor has said that “nothing about this situation rises to the level of a criminal charge.”
We assume the internet will welcome this news with an accepting nod of the head. Kidding! It will be furious!
"Had she been in the bathroom smoking crack and let her kids run around the zoo that'd be a different story," Hamilton County prosecutor Joseph Deters told media.
"She was attending to her children by all witness accounts and the three-year-old just scampered off.
"If anyone doesn't believe a three-year-old can scamper off very quickly, they've never had kids because they can and they do.”
The family responded to the news in a statement: "This is one more step in allowing us to put this tragic episode behind us and return to our normal family life.”
Cincinnati Zoo will reopen the gorilla enclosure tomorrow, with a higher barrier and a new, knotted rope netting, to prevent any similar intrusions in the future.
Last week, the panicked 911 call made by the boy’s mother was released by officials. (She had already offered this explanation on Facebook for her son sneaking off: “accidents happen”.)
With the gorilla enclosure reopening, criminal charges not being followed up, and a ghastly merch line set up to profit off Harambe’s death, we can only hope this tragic story has – finally - come to an end, even if it's not the ending many would have liked to see.
Photo: Flickr / Mark Dumont.
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wtf sad
It was the mothers negligence of the child that cause the boy to fall into the enclosure... so they killed the gorilla because of the mothers negligence....
I agree with you
Even though it is a unfortunate for the loss of Harambe, Gorillas are known to be highly aggressive. So there could be a slight chance of the loss of the child. However the mother did not look after her child and as a result he fell into the exhibit. Her "smoking crack" though should have nothing to do with the offense. If she had looked after her child, the gorilla wouldn't have been shot.
I don't think that it is the mothers fault