Atlanta police have arrested a mother of three, months after her 7-year-old son died with his head trapped in a partially open car window while she was allegedly “passed out” in the front seat.
Kandice Grace, 32, is facing charges of second-degree murder and second-degree child cruelty in connection with the death of her son, Mazi Simmons, according to a warrant obtained by People.
Police received a 911 call on April 6 at 9:30 a.m. reporting a child found unresponsive at an Atlanta home. There, Mazi was found unresponsive in the back seat of his mother’s car, with his head trapped in the window, sitting next to his two younger siblings.
Police reported he was unconscious and not breathing, and was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. His official manner and cause of death will be determined at autopsy, police said in a news release.
Grace was reportedly unconscious in the driver’s seat, and tests later showed the presence of opioids and THC in her system, People reports.
A witness told police that Kandice Grace had stopped by his home after 10 p.m. the previous night. She reportedly left her children in the car because she didn’t want them inside his home and drove off shortly afterward.
The next morning, the witness saw Grace’s car in the parking lot with her 7-year-old son’s head hanging out of the window. He began banging on the car to try to wake her, according to the warrant.
Investigators located Grace with her youngest child inside a neighbor’s house upon responding to the call. The warrant alleges that authorities tried to talk to her, but she “ kept passing out while sitting up and holding her child.”
Grace is being held at the Fulton County Jail.
A GoFundMe was created in April by a person named Karion Bickham to help with Mazi’s funeral and memorial expenses, as well as “to lift some of the weight off Kandice’s shoulders during this incredibly painful time.”
“This tragic accident has left his mother, Kandice Grace, facing unimaginable grief once again. Mazi was her second child, and heartbreakingly, not her first loss. She also lost her daughter, Jordice, and now she is enduring the unthinkable pain of saying goodbye to another piece of her heart,” the fundraiser page reads.
