Police: Five-year-old girl drowned toddler for crying too much

(CBS/AP) KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City police say a 5-year-old girl drowned an 18-month old toddler last Friday to stop his crying.

The boy's death had originally been ruled an accidental drowning until the young girl told police she took the child into the bathroom of the Kansas City house and held him underwater in the tub because she was upset that he wouldn't stop crying.

The girl and the toddler, Jermane Johnson Jr., were both left in the care of a mentally handicapped teenager, who was sleeping at the time of the incident, reports CBS affiliate KCTV.

Although the Medical Examiner's office has not declared the case a homicide yet, police say they're investigating it as such and confirmed Thursday that the 5-year-old girl is a suspect in the case, according to KCTV.

There is no minimum age for criminal responsibility in Missouri, KCTV reports.

According to Bart Lubow, the director of the Juvenile Justice Strategy Group at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a national child advocacy organization, a 5-year-old is incapable of forming intent and likely wouldn't even know what drowning means.

"You can imagine a child responding to other children's crying by saying, 'I know how to stop that.' But the notion that there was intent there is silly," said Lubow, who wasn't familiar with the case.

Lubow added, "For a 5-year-old, this is well beyond the pale of what our criminal or delinquency laws are intended to address."

The girl was not been arrested, and the case was referred to Jackson County's family courts division.

Vivian Murphy, executive director of the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association, says a child in such a situation would undergo a mental health evaluation and that there would be an investigation into the child's living situation.