http://www.news24.com/News24/World/N...407377,00.html
Church kills boy in exorcism
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Prosecutors said they expected to file charges on Tuesday in the murder of an eight year-old autistic boy, who was apparently suffocated during a church exorcism session.
Terrance Cottrell jun died on Friday night at a church on the northwest side of this city during a prayer session in which he was physically restrained by four adults - one of them his mother - seeking to rid him of "evil spirits".
One of the four, a 71kg church elder, Ray Hemphill, lay on top of the boy, according to witnesses. The 45-year-old is being held on suspicion of physical abuse of a child, a felony.
Cottrell's cause of death was given as "mechanical asphyxia due to external chest compression", according to the Medical Examiner's office.
The fatal prayer session was just one in a series of physically grueling prayer sessions the youngster had undergone, according to Tamara Tolefree, one of the women who attended Friday's session, who revealed that Ray Hemphill was dedicated to the task of liberating Cottrell from his demons, as he saw it.
Hemphill had decided to devote his entire vacation from his job as a janitor to "getting that spirit out of Junior", she said. "(Friday) was to be our last and final time trying that kind of prayer," Tolefree said.
According to investigators, Hemphill told them he that he would sit on the boy's chest for up to two hours at a time during the services at a storefront church.
On Friday, after more than an hour of restraining Terrance and praying for him, Tolefree said the group saw the boy had shut his eyes and slowed his breathing.
Hemphill then "took control" of the situation and attempted to revive the boy, she said. Paramedics were called but could not save Terrance.
Mark Williams, assistant district attorney for the Milwaukee county district attorney's office, said he expected charges to be filed later on Tuesday. - Sapa-AFP
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