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Boy accidentally hangs himself while mimicking YouTube prank

'He didn't know if you pull you're only worsening, it's tightening,' mother says

Rebecca Flood
Tuesday 20 September 2016 12:42 BST
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Mother speaks of son who hung himself by accident

A boy accidentally hanged himself in front of his siblings while mimicking a YouTube prank.

Cantenecia Stokes, from Georgia, found her eldest son, Aundreis Bass, hanging from a rope in his closet.

The mother had been making breakfast for the 11-year-old and her three other children when the tragedy occurred.

They informed her that the youngster was not breathing, and when Ms Stokes rushed to his bedroom she immediately cut the rope and tried to resuscitate her son.

She dialled 911 and he was taken to a children’s hospital in Atlanta, but died from his injuries four days later.

His mother claimed he had been watching prank videos involving hanging on YouTube before he died last week.

She said Aundreis, who loved music, drawing and basketball, had tried in vain to free himself from the rope, but did not know how to take it off.

Ms stokes told WSB-TV: “I lost my baby because of something he didn't know really completely about.

“He panicked and he was trying to take himself out and he didn't know if you pull you're only worsening, it's tightening.

“I was panicking because I wasn’t getting a response.”

Following the accident, she said she was banning her other children from going online without her supervision.

The mother said she hoped to raise awareness of the sort of dangerous content children may be gaining access to.

She added: “It’s gotten to the point where it’s taking away our kids.

“I just don’t want nobody else to have to suffer what I went through.”

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