OMARIYA DISHMAN - 4 yo (2010) - Joliet IL

A Joliet mother has been charged with child endangerment after her
4-year-old son was killed in a fire while apparently left home alone
earlier this month.
Tiana M. Wallace, 25, was charged in an arrest warrant with endangering
the life or health of a child, a felony that carries up to five years in
prison, according to the Will County State's Attorney's office.
The charge alleges that Wallace left her son, 4-year-old Omariya
Dishman, unattended in her apartment at 316 N. Bluff in Joliet. Dishman
died in a fire around midnight on the night of April 7.
An arrest warrant with a $175,000 bond was issued for Wallace on Monday,
although she has not yet been taken into custody.
Shortly before midnight the night of April 7, a fire broke out in Wallace's
first-floor apartment at 316 N. Bluff St.
Fire crews responding to the blaze found Wallace's son, 4-year-old
Omariya Dishman, in a bedroom of the apartment. He was taken to Silver
Cross Hospital in Joliet, where he was pronounced dead at 12:37 a.m. on
April 8.
Authorities said Wallace was not at the apartment at the time of the
fire, which was contained to the apartment.
"The initial report that we received was that the child was alone in the
apartment when our crews did make entry to the apartment," Joliet Fire
Deputy Chief Ray Randich said at the time. "There was no caregiver with
the child in the apartment. It was just the child alone that was found
alone in the apartment."
Witnesses said Wallace, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair, was a few
floors above the apartment, visiting friends.
"She's a good mother. She didn't mean no harm," said a family friend
named Raymond, who asked CBS 2 News not to use his last name. "All she
was doing was just going upstairs, and the next thing you know they was
like, 'your house is on fire.'"
Raymond said that, with smoke filling the building, he took Tiana out of
her wheelchair and carried her to safety on his back, as she cried out,
"Where's my baby? Where's my baby?"
Wallace also has been under investigation by the Illinois Department of
Children and Family Services for allegations of neglect. DCFS has not
had prior contact with the family and the allegations came as a result
of the fire, spokesman Jimmie Whitlow said.
Omariya was a student at the Catholic Charities Bluff Head Start
preschool, located on the first floor of the building, Catholic
Charities spokeswoman Lorri Nagel said.
A neighbor said Wallace always took good care of her son. Friends say
she is devastated.
"Everywhere she go, she got him. He got her, and now she has no one
'cause he's gone," said Angela Bolden, a longtime friend of Tiana
Wallace who often babysat little Omariya.
"That's like her life right there. That's all she had was her son,"
Raymond said, still in shock over the child's death.
He said Wallace told him she hadn't been gone for more than a couple of
minutes when the fire broke out.
Anyone with information about Wallace's whereabouts is asked to call the
Joliet Police Department's Investigations Division at (815) 724-3020 or
Crime Stoppers of Will County at (800) 323-6734.

Mother pleads guilty to child endangerment after 4-year-old dies in fire


A Joliet woman pleaded guilty Friday to child endangerment almost a year after her 4-year-old son died in an apartment fire that started when the boy was left alone for only 15 minutes.
Tiana “Tina” Wallace, 26, pleaded guilty in Will County Circuit Court. Judge Ed Burmila sentenced her to 30 months probation.
Wallace’s only son, Omariya Dishman, died of smoke inhalation in their Evergreen Terrace apartment April 7. Wallace — who uses a wheelchair after being shot in the back at 16 and is paralyzed from the waist down —was on the fourth floor of the apartment picking up a place of spaghetti from her sister when the fire broke out.
Family members have said Wallace was a good parent and she had complained that an electrical outlet in her bathroom was smoking in the days before the fire. Wallace was carried out of the apartment by neighbors, but the boy never made it out of the building.