The parents of a 2-year-old Arkansas boy were arrested this week for his death last summer.

Police say the toddler drowned while Dakota Shawn Hays, 29, was teaching him to swim by throwing him into a pool and shoving him under water to get items from the bottom, KHBS reported. Hays, the toddler’s stepfather, and the boy’s mother, Annastacia Grace Atkins, 24, were both charged with first degree murder. Hays was additionally charged with endangering the welfare of minor, and Atkins was charged with permitting abuse of a minor.

The incident took place on June 14, 2024. Hays, Atkins, and their three children were swimming, and Hays was trying to teach the toddler how to swim.

A 6-year-old girl told investigators that Hays threw the boy in the water and held him under. Hays said that was part of his swimming instructions and he was only ever under water for a few seconds at a time.

At some point during the swimming lessons, Hays and the boy were alone in the pool when Hays suddenly ran to get Atkins, telling her something was wrong the fucking toddler, who he described as shaking, gasping, and spitting up water, having apparently been under water for much longer than a few seconds.

Someone called 911 while Atkins attempted chest compressions, but the boy stopped breathing and died.

The Arkansas Crime Lab conducted an autopsy and said his cause of death was hypoxic-ischemic Encephalopathy from a prolonged lack of oxygen to the brain.

Later, a pediatric professor at the University of Arkansas examined a scan of the child’s lungs and said it was consistent with drowning.

The crime lab also said the boy had multiple injuries on his head and body, including abrasions, cuts, and scars. Hays insisted that he would never hurt a child and said some of the bruises came when the TODDLER fell of a countertop the night before.

Atkins told police she’d never seen Hays hit the boy, but that told her once he thought he might have “whooped” the child too hard and left marks on his leg.

A 4-year-old boy, however, told investigators that Hays would regularly hit both him and the younger boy, and that both Hays and Atkins hit him with a wooden stick.

Hays is jailed on a $1 million bond, and Atkins has a $750,000 bond.

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[Featured image: Dakota Hays and Annastacia Atkins/Crawford County Sheriff’s Office]