HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – The mother of a boy who drowned in a Gibsonton creek spoke to 8 On Your Side Thursday, just moments after she was released from jail.

“I think it’s insane because it was an accident. It was a freak accident. So no, I didn’t think I needed to be charged for it,” Tabatha Long said.

Sheriff Chad Chronister announced the arrest of Long, 28, at a press conference on Thursday.

Chronister said deputies were called to Bullfrog Creek on July 31 after the boy had gone into the water and disappeared.

About 30 minutes later, divers pulled the unresponsive boy from the water and began CPR, but their efforts were unsuccessful.

He was taken to St. Joseph’s South Hospital and pronounced dead.

“She told deputies that her son went into the water without her permission, that he could swim, yet wasn’t a strong swimmer. We now know she wasn’t being truthful,” the sheriff said.

According to Chronister, Long was heavily inebriated and had gone into the water with the boy on her back before he was swept away by a strong current.

Hours after the boy drowned, his mother’s blood-alcohol level was .07, which is just shy of the legal limit. She was also under the influence of marijuana, Chronister said.

“She chose to drink and get high over the safety of her child,” Chronister added. “This child will miss every memory that life has to offer. He will never grow up to achieve his dreams, whatever they may have been.”

Long is charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail early Thursday morning then released around 1:30 p.m.

“What will you do now?” reporter Ryan Hughes asked.

“Continue on, you know? Living and going on and everything. That’s what my son wanted,” she said.

Long told 8 On Your Side her eight-year-old daughter is currently with the Florida Department of Children and Families and she’s working to try to get her back.

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