OXFORD – The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office responded to a Sumter County residence on Wednesday morning after receiving a call that a snake was strangling a child. When the officers arrived on the scene, the child was dead, and the snake was found under furniture, having been stabbed by its owner.
Charles Jason Darnell (DOB 03-26-77) told officers he placed his 8-foot, 5-inch albino Burmese python in a bag and put it in an aquarium Tuesday night. When Darnell woke in the morning, he said he discovered the snake had escaped from both the bag and the aquarium. He told investigators that he discovered the python on top of Shaiunna Hare, age 2, and then he stabbed the snake before calling 911, according to Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Bobby Caruthers.
