Police department recommends charges in drowning of TikTok influencer’s son

CHANDLER, Ariz. (KPHO/Gray News) — The police department investigating the drowning of a TikTok influencer’s son is recommending that the boy’s father be charged.

The Chandler Police Department announced Tuesday that after completing their investigation, detectives believe the 3-year-old boy’s father, Brady Kiser, should be charged with child abuse, a class 4 felony.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office will decide whether or not to charge Kiser.

Trigg Kiser was pulled out of his family’s backyard swimming pool just before 7 p.m. on May 12. He died after a week in the hospital.

Police did not share why they thought Kiser should be charged.

“What Chandler [police] is suggesting that they could prove that this young man essentially failed to perceive a substantial risk that the toddler could drown,” local defense attorney David Black told KPHO.

Black, who is not connected to this case, said prosecutors will need to prove Kiser was negligent.

“If it’s done recklessly, it’s a class 3 felony now. If it’s done with criminal negligence, it’s a class 4 felony,” Black said.

TikTok influencer Emilie Henrichsen, who goes by Emily Kiser and is Trigg’s mother and Kiser’s wife, filed a lawsuit in May to prevent the details of Trigg’s death from becoming public.

Black said it’s hard to answer most questions about the charges with a lack of details.

“It would be more serious if they were suggesting that he consciously was aware of the risk and disregarded it. It would be more serious, in my opinion, if alcohol was involved. My guess is that what he was doing wasn’t particularly reckless or risky but instead just tragic,” he said.

The fact that the Kiser family is in the public eye has created a lot of publicity around what would otherwise likely be a low-profile tragedy.

“My personal opinion is that they shouldn’t charge. I mean, I have little kids. I can’t imagine the life sentence of losing a child, and this almost seems petty after the fact, but the reason to do it this way is for publicity. I mean, somebody at Chandler said, ‘We need to submit on this. There’s a death and too many kids are dying by drowning,’” Black said.