A South Carolina woman has been charged with murder and attempted murder after drowning one of her daughters and attempting to drown the other but was stopped after her oldest child intervened, police say.
It is unclear why Jamie Bradley Brun, 37, wanted to kill her children, Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said.
“I’m not a mental health expert. It’s not my job to determine if someone has a mental health problem,” he added.
The crime took place shortly after midnight Friday after Brun’s daughter, 16, was awakened by screams from her 8-year-old sister.
“The teen went into the bathroom and managed to wrest her sister away from her mother and run to a nearby family member’s house to call 911,” Tanner said. “I’m very proud of her. I think she did an unbelievable job. She defended her family when no one else was available. Her courage is amazing.”
Eight minutes after the attempted drowning, deputies arrived at the scene and found the suspect’s 6-year-old daughter unresponsive. She was rushed to a local hospital after paramedics attempted to revive her. But it was too late. She was pronounced dead at the hospital, police said.
As officers attempted to apprehend Brun to take her into custody, she attempted to grab a deputy’s gun but was shocked by a Taser, Tanner said.
Brun is currently in jail and being held without bond. Meanwhile, her 8-year-old and teenage sister are in the care of family members.
“Brun had no arrest record in South Carolina and authorities had been called to the house only once about two years ago after a school employee was concerned about the mental health of one of the children,” according to an Associated Press report.
“There is a lot more information that we have and a lot more details that we know but at this point we can’t share,” Tanner concluded.
