Laughing employee at assisted living facility whipped resident with lanyard and took him to ground with co-worker: Deputies

by Alberto Luperon

Rosa Edwards, left, and Aneisha Xitvaia Hall were charged with battering two residents at an assisted living facility. (Mugshots: Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office)

Two employees of an assisted living facility were charged with battering two residents, authorities said.

One of them, Rosa Edwards, 23, whipped a male victim with a lanyard while laughing before she and co-defendant Aneisha Xitavia Hall, 19, grabbed him and took him to the ground, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.

Both women are charged with two counts of battery on a person 65 or older. Authorities said the second victim was a female resident of the facility.

Deputies said in a statement that they started investigating Tuesday after getting a report of two employees battering at Inspired Living at Ivy Ridge Assisted Living Facility at 7179 40th Avenue North in unincorporated St. Petersburg. The facility’s executive director reported the Sunday incident after seeing it on surveillance footage, authorities said.

“Deputies say the incident was initially reported by staff as a resident-on-resident battery, however, the director became suspicious of the claims,” the sheriff’s office said. “Throughout the course of the investigation, it was discovered that two employees, 23-year-old Rosa Edwards and 19-year-old Aneisha Hall, initiated an altercation with an elderly male resident. The resident was pushing an elderly female resident down the hall in her wheelchair. Deputies say Edwards began to whip the male resident with a lanyard while laughing when a physical altercation ensued. Edwards and Hall proceeded to grab the male resident and take him to the ground as he continued to hold on to the wheelchair, causing it to fall sideways with the female resident in it. Both Edwards and Hall then ran away from the area of the incident and out of view of the camera, leaving both elderly residents laying on the ground.”

The victims did not suffer injuries, deputies said.

Edwards and Hall told a co-worker that the man battered the woman and that they were not involved, deputies said.

But when investigators talked to Edwards, “she admitted to using excessive force when dealing with the incident and stated that they should have handled it differently,” according to the statement.

Pinellas County court records show Edwards was charged in 2021 with a count of battery on a person 65 years or older. She got into an argument with the victim and struck him in the head, causing his hat to fall to the ground, documents said.

“Post-Miranda, the defendant admitted to hitting the victim in the head using her right hand,” authorities wrote.

The disposition of the 2021 case is unclear from available online court records.

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Laughing employee at assisted living facility whipped resident with lanyard and took him to ground with co-worker: Deputies