Extremely heartbreaking news coming out of Miami…
A 14-year-old Florida girl in foster care took her own life on Sunday night and live streamed her suicide on social media.
Via the Miami Herald:
For two hours, Nakia Venant broadcast from the bathroom of her Miami Gardens foster home, eventually fashioning a homemade noose from her scarf. The live feed ended abruptly.
Nakia, a petite 14-year-old with long hair and a sweet smile, killed herself overnight Sunday while live-streaming the event.
Administrators with the Florida Department of Children & Families would offer little detail Tuesday about Nakia’s death, other than to confirm that both child welfare administrators and the Miami Gardens Police Department were investigating the suicide death of “a child … in the care of a foster family.”
“We are absolutely horrified and devastated by the news of this young girl’s death,” said DCF Secretary Mike Carroll. “We will do everything we can to support this family and all those who cared for her as they begin to heal from this tragedy. We will conduct a comprehensive, multidisciplinary special review to examine this child’s history and the circumstances related to serving the child.”
In a reply to a request from the Miami Herald on Tuesday afternoon, DCF released a three-sentence incident report on Nakia’s death. It said the teen attached her scarf to a “shower-glass door frame” to end her life at around 3:03 a.m. and was declared dead “at a local hospital.”
One of Nakia’s friends saw the live feed that showed her hanging in the bathroom, but efforts to save the girl were hindered by a series of mishaps. The friend called Miami-Dade Police. Officers showed up at the friend’s house. She then gave them an incorrect address in Miami. The residents at that address gave police the address of her foster home in Miami Gardens, Miami Gardens police spokeswoman Petula Burks told the Herald.
Miami Gardens officers found her hanging there — while her foster parents were asleep in their bedroom. They tried to resuscitate her, as did a fire-rescue crew. Efforts to revive Nakia were unsuccessful and she was taken to Jackson North Hospital, Burks said.
“Nakia was smart academically, loved to smile and [had] lots of charisma,” said a close family friend, Gerta Telfort. She said Nakia was her mother’s first child and only girl — and that her dream was to write a book on her life. The girl had started a daily journal, Telfort said.
My heart aches for this beautiful girl.
Facebook should implement an emergency option for people to alert them and the authorities immediately when something like this happens.
