Former America’s Got Talent contestant Deshundre Vinson has been arrested and charged with murder following the drowning death of his 4-year-old nephew at a Tennessee apartment complex.
Vinson, 22, was arrested Wednesday, Sept. 2, and charged with first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated child abuse, according to Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office records.
His bond was set at $750,000.
The charges stem from an Aug. 16 incident at an apartment swimming pool on Central Avenue in Chattanooga.
Police were already at the complex handling an unrelated matter at around 5:40 p.m. when officers heard screaming coming from the pool area.
When they arrived, CPR was being performed on a 4-year-old boy who had been pulled from the water unconscious.
The child was rushed to a hospital and remained in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit for approximately five days before he died.
Surveillance footage reviewed by investigators reportedly showed the boy moving along the edge of the pool before entering deeper water.
Authorities said the child appeared to slip, struggle and then go underwater.
According to local reports, the boy remained submerged for approximately nine minutes before someone noticed him, pulled him from the pool and began CPR.
Investigators later determined that the child was Vinson’s nephew and that Vinson had been babysitting him that day, along with the boy’s 6-year-old brother and other children.
Authorities allege Vinson allowed the two young boys to walk roughly 0.2 miles to the apartment pool without adult supervision.
Investigators also reportedly uncovered text messages between Vinson and the child’s mother in which he acknowledged the lack of supervision and his delayed response to the drowning.
Vinson became known nationally as a member of the R&B trio Citi Limitz, which appeared on America’s Got Talent and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
He is scheduled to appear in court again on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
The Chattanooga Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.