Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing
Security footage has shed more light on the tragic incident involving a New York mom who authorities say ‘intentionally jumped’ into Niagara Falls with her two young children.
On Monday (October 28) around 9pm, New York state police received a report of a mother and her children seen entering the water at the top of Niagara Falls from Goat Island. Tourists had witnessed the event and alerted authorities.
The surveillance footage now suggests that the woman first sent her children over the railing.
According to the Niagara Gazette, the State Park Police announced on Thursday (October 31) that they had reviewed the footage and confirmed several details of the heartbreaking event.
It is believed that nine-year-old Roman Rossman was the first to be sent over the barrier, followed by five-month-old Mecca Means.
Their mother, Chianti Means, 33, then proceeded to follow them, as stated by the police during a press conference.
When asked if Means was chasing her children, State Police Public Information Officer Trooper James O’Callaghan remarked: “No, we believe this was intentional.
“Not going to get into what the witnesses saw because it’s still an active case, but it is alarming what they told us,”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwQqYseFKzc
In the weeks leading up to the tragic event, Means had posted several messages on Facebook directed at her daughter’s father.
In one post last month, she wrote: “I wish someone would love me because the man that’s suppose to does not.”
A few days later, she expressed on the platform: “Sick of irritation, anger, sadness and rage.”
Just a day before her death, she posted: “Unfortunately for everyone who wanna get with me… my body only craves one person. GM.”
In a statement on Thursday (October 30), a New York State police representative told WKBW TV: “We’ve come to the conclusion that a 33-year-old mother, a nine-year-old son and then a five-month-old were all gone over the falls.
“We do believe it was intentional but the circumstances of that investigation and the circumstances of what actually happened are still under investigation.
“But we know that they went over due to the information from park police and some of the information we were able to obtain through multiple different sources in and around Niagara Falls and pieces of evidence we were able to come across in search warrants.”
The representative added: “They went there and they never came out. So that’s where we’re at. […] Like I said there’s a lot of safety railings, a lot of security measures at the state park so it’s not something where they just stumbled in.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.