Police investigating an incident where a 13 year old girl committed suicide after her father recorded a video of him punishing her say the teen made some poor choices.
Izabel Laxamana’s suicide came after a 15-second video showing her father questioning Laxamana after cutting off her hair as punishment for unspecified behavior was shared online.
“The consequences of getting messed up?” a male voice believed to be her fathers can be heard as he pans from his daughter’s face to a pile of hair lying at her feet. “Man, you lost all that beautiful hair. Was it worth it?”
“No,” Laxamana says.
“How many times did I warn you?”
“Alot,” she says quietly.
Izabel jumped from a bridge on May 29, just days after her dad Jeff cut off her hair and posted a video of the punishment online.
It has been reported locally that Izabel, from Tacoma, Washington, walked out of a car before jumping off a bridge onto Interstate 5 – the main highway on the US west coast.
She was taken to a Seattle hospital, where she died on Saturday
Many people have criticised the girls father but police say he did not upload the video online and that the video was not supposed to be published.
“She was a 13-year-old that made some poor choices, meaning that she didn’t have to kill herself,” Tacoma Public Information Officer Loretta Cool told the New York Daily news. Police believe an unidentified third party uploaded the video, thinking it would help.
While Izabelle’s father may have intended the video to be a personal reminder for his daughter’s eyes only, her suicide has prompted a larger debate over the public punishments that can haunt children online – years after they broke the rules.
