CHICAGO — A woman has been charged with attempted murder after she pushed a 3-year-old boy into Lake Michigan, police said.
Victoria Moreno, 34, of suburban Des Plaines, has been charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery of a child younger than 13, police said.
About 1 p.m. Monday, Moreno and the boy were in the 700 block of East Grand Avenue when she pushed the boy into the lake and did not try to rescue him, police said.
First responders pulled the boy from the water. He was hospitalized in critical condition.
Moreno was expected to appear in bond court Wednesday.
Moreno is the boy’s aunt, according to CBS’ Charlie De Mar.
The boy’s mother brought him to his grandmother’s that day; when the grandmother was changing clothes, the relative took the boy and left, a source told the Sun-Times’ Tom Schuba.
The woman told investigators she only saw the boy drown, then said she had been holding onto his shirt and let him fall into the lake, according to the Sun-Times.
Witnesses told police they tried to help, getting a flotation device and calling 911, while the relative did nothing, according to the Sun-Times.