‘Mommy Was Shocked:’ North Carolina Woman Dies of Electrocution

Zachary Stieber
By Zachary Stieber
March 8, 2019US News
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‘Mommy Was Shocked:’ North Carolina Woman Dies of Electrocution
(Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times)

A North Carolina woman died from electrocution along with her daughter, officials said.

An autopsy released on March 7 found that Kendra Pittman, 30, and her 9-year-old daughter Siiyahh died on Aug. 10, 2018, from electrocution while they were staying at the Economy Inn Hotel and Suites in Rocky Mount.

While at the extended stay motel, the room’s air conditioner stopped working. The father of the family left to pay rent and tell the front desk that the air conditioner stopped working.

The desk clerk checked and reset the breaker, according to the autopsy, which was obtained by WRAL. When the father returned to the room he could hear the air conditioner running—and his 10-year-old son shouting through the door.

“Don’t touch the door. Mommy was shocked,” the son said.

The man kicked down the door and found his wife and daughter on the floor, unresponsive.

The boy said his mother touched the door and “stiffened and became unresponsive.” He knocked her away from the door and tried to help her when his sister touched the door handle.

At the time of the deaths, Rocky Mount police told WTVD that Pittman went into cardiac arrest.

The cause of death was confirmed by the autopsy as electrocution.

Following the deaths, Ronald Hall, Pittman’s boyfriend and the father of the children, lamented the losses.

“I shouldn’t have had to lose a daughter. I shouldn’t have had to lose a girlfriend,” he told WNCN. He recalled what happened, remembering his son’s warning. “He told me, ‘Daddy, don’t open the door,’ and I’m like, ‘What?’ He said, ‘It just shocked mommy,’” Hall said.

Family members said Pittman was a good mother.

“She worked hard for her kids. She did everything she could,” Pittman’s aunt Cynthia Williams said.

Worker Dies From Electrocution

Meanwhile, a Georgia worker died after being electrocuted on March 7, authorities said.

The 60-year-old man was working on cable lines in Spalding County from a bucket truck when he was electrocuted. The utility contractor was found unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene.

Members of the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division were working at the scene along with county coroner Sonny Foster, reported WXIA.

The exact cause of death was not pinpointed but was likely electrocution, officials said.

Investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were notified due to the man dying on the job.

The victim’s name has not been released.

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