Mom Tweets About Son’s Pool Accident, Death As It Happens
A grieving Florida mother is under fire for posting a Twitter message about her dying son just 34 minutes after the 2-year-old boy was found in the bottom of her backyard pool.
“Please pray like never before,” blogger Shellie Ross typed Monday in a message to her Twitter followers. “my 2 yr old fell in the pool.”
Five hours later, little Bryson Ross was pronounced dead at a local hospital, and his gadget savvy mom was back on her Twitter account updating her 5,000 followers, complete with a photo of her smiling son on the social networking site.
What followed was an outpouring of cyberspace sympathy ? and a torrent of Internet anger.
Ross, a blogger with a tweet name “Military Mom,” sent out a message at 5:22 p.m.: “Fog is rolling in thick scared the birds back in the coop.”
Sixty seconds later, police in Mirrett Island, Florida, said they received an emergency call saying Ross? 2 -year-old son was floating unconscious in their pool.
Records show that the Brevard County paramedics arrived at Ross? home at 5:38 p.m. At 6:12 p.m., Ross tweeted again: “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool.”
Nearly five hours later, after her son had been pronounced dead, Ms Ross tweeted again.
“Remembering my million dollar baby,” she wrote, and included a photo of Bryson.
Twitters users said they were shocked at the timing of the posts. Some thought the messages were a hoax.
“The first thing I thought when I saw the tweet was that it was very sad,” said Madison McGraw, who does not know Ross personally, but saw the post. “But then I thought, ?Who would tweet that her son just drowned??” she told ABC News. “I couldn?t believe it.
“The person that I have compassion for is her son ? who might still be alive if (Ross) interacted with her son like she interacted with people on Twitter,” McGraw wrote in her own blog. “To me, that shows the repercussions for social media gone awry.”
Ross’ husband is in the Air Force. They also have an 11-year-old son. The mother said Bryson was in the water for about five minutes.
“I was outside with him and it took two seconds for him to slip away,” she said in a tweet the next day.
It is unclear what Ross was doing between 5:22 p.m., when she tweeted, and 5:38 p.m., when her son called for help.
The original message about her son falling into the pool has been deleted from her Twitter page.
Brevard County Sheriff?s Office called it an accidental drowning.
Source: NYPost.com
Update:: Ross’ Twitter Page has been made private. The following is a post from her blog on Dec 17:
Media outlets: Please leave us alone, stop trespassing onto our property. Yes this includes the private drive you have to turn down to get of our home. Stop calling me my family and friends for comments. WE ARENT GIVING ANY, PERIOD, END OF STORY FOR YOU. Stop posting my information, photos of my home and address.
Those who do not know me, us our family: Find a hobby, get a job, get a clue please. You do not know me us or him. You do not have the right to speak or type his name. He was better than you in every way. Stop slandering my name, stop disrespecting my son and husband with your pitiful pathetic mouths.
There have been NO interviews granted by myself, my husband or my family. There will be no interviews granted, period end of story. So for those who have ?covered? this tragedy without learning the facts, and who have miss spoken and have not gotten it right, gee thanks. If it were not for you I could mourn in peace. Let?s try this why don?t we, leave me alone, find your next victim and let my sons memory be one of good and peace and strength.
LEAVE US ALONE
Source: Blog4Mom.com
