Naomi Gaines

Case overview

Naomi Gaines was a 24-year-old mother from St. Paul, Minnesota. On July 4, 2003, she threw her 14-month-old twin sons, Sincere Understanding Allah and Supreme Knowledge Allah, into the Mississippi River from the Wabasha Street Bridge during Fourth of July festivities at the Taste of Minnesota. She also jumped into the water and was rescued along with Supreme Understanding by onlookers. Sincere Understanding drowned, and his body was found two days later downriver.

After the incident, Gaines told police that she wanted to kill herself and that she did not want to leave her twin boys behind in a hostile world. She was charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder.

Timeline

• July 4, 2003 — Naomi Gaines threw her 14-month-old twin sons, Sincere Understanding Allah and Supreme Knowledge Allah, into the Mississippi River from the Wabasha Street Bridge during Fourth of July festivities at the Taste of Minnesota; Supreme survived and Sincere was later found drowned; Gaines jumped into the water and was rescued.
• August 7, 2002 — At a Ramsey County court hearing, Gaines agreed to voluntarily receive psychiatric treatment and take medication.
• February 11, 2003 — A court order released Gaines from the requirements to receive voluntary treatment and take medication.
• August 13, 2004 — Gaines pleaded guilty.
• July 8, 2003 — News coverage described the incident, the investigation background, and Gaines’s treatment history.
• 2009 — Coverage described Gaines’s background and the aftermath, including later awareness efforts related to postpartum depression.
• [no specific date provided] — Supreme Knowledge was placed in the care of his father.
• [no specific date provided] — Gaines was committed to the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter for a psychiatric evaluation.
• [no specific date provided] — Gaines was sentenced to 19 years in prison for the murder of Sincere Understanding Allah and 14 years for the attempted murder of Supreme Knowledge Allah.

The offence

On July 4, 2003, during Fourth of July festivities at the Taste of Minnesota, Naomi Gaines pushed her 14-month-old twins in a stroller up and down the Wabasha Street Bridge in St. Paul, then leaned over the railing and dropped them about 60 feet into the Mississippi River. She then jumped into the water herself.

Witnesses and onlookers rescued Gaines and one of her sons, Supreme Knowledge Allah, from the river. Sincere Understanding Allah surfaced briefly, but was pulled under by the current. Sincere’s body could not be found until boaters spotted it downriver two days later, 11 miles downstream.

Gaines removed her pants and shirt, climbed up on the railing, and fell backward into the water between Raspberry Island and the river’s south bank, yelling “Freedom” as she dropped.

Gaines told police in an interview that she wanted to kill herself and did not want to leave her twin boys behind “in a hostile world.” She also told police she felt people on the bridge were staring at her and that someone she bumped into with the stroller reacted rudely. She told police that she did not want to die quietly in her apartment without anyone paying attention to her.

Investigation and police interview

Gaines gave police an explanation for what happened. In one account, she told police she spent the early hours of July 4 cleaning and doing laundry at her townhouse in the McDonough Homes public housing complex. Her two older children were visiting relatives in Chicago.

After she drove downtown and parked, she walked across the Wabasha Street Bridge toward the Taste of Minnesota celebration on nearby Harriet Island. She made one round trip looking for other single moms or even just a friendly face, then again walked away toward Raspberry Island.

Shortly after 9:00 p.m., she stopped near the southeast corner of the bridge, kissed Supreme Knowledge Allah, told him she was sorry, and threw him into the Mississippi River. She then kissed his brother, Sincere Understanding Allah, and threw him in too.

At Regions Hospital after she was pulled from the river, Gaines explained that it had not been her plan to kill her children, but that at the last minute she realized she did not want her kids to have to live in the world without her.

The following statements were attributed to Gaines:

• “Freedom”
• “I was crying, thinking that maybe I didn’t deserve to live or that I didn’t want to,”
• “I don’t remember her name, but she was that one person who was unbiased and didn’t know me from a can of paint,”
• “She said: 'Naomi, if you were driving your car with the twins in the back seat and you crashed because you had a heart attack and your twins died, would people be blaming you or your heart attack?'”
• “right now, my life is actually pretty good.”
• “If people were to ask me what happened that day and expect it to make sense, it won’t,”
• “What went wrong that day? It wasn’t that day. It was months, and possibly even years, prior.”
• “I absolutely use writing as a form of therapy,”
• “Sometimes I just sit at my typewriter and shake. It's really painful to think about, because you not only live it in your memory, but you actually bring it to life and, re-reading it on paper, I experience it all over again.”
• “It's very painful to be judged and to be looked at like a horrible mom when that's far from the truth,”
• “That's the most frustrating thing. People look at that day and say: 'Oh, what a terrible mother' ... 'Oh, I could never do that.' ”
• “Well, I'm glad you could never know what it's like to want to do something like that. I'm glad. Consider yourself blessed.”
• “I was so paranoid, I felt people were poisoning me,”
• “It was another symptom of delusional thinking.”
• “I like to help people.”
• “When he comes out and says 'I want to see her,' he can,”
• “I explain to him the best I can or the best I think he can understand right now,”
• “If I thought for a minute my child wasn't sick and she just did that, I wouldn't support her and visit her,”
• “But I believe she was sick. ... I never thought my child would take my grandchild's life -- not ever in a million years.”
• “because my son is not going to be there when I walk out these doors.”
• “I will never meet the man he was becoming or the teenager he would have been or the husband and father he could have potentially been. And I will have to live with that for the rest of my life.”
• “I would rather be dead than live in a place where I'm not free to walk around, I'm not free to be who I am, I'm not free to see other moms out, single black moms with their kids, enjoying their kids.”
• “I would rather be dead than live in a place where I'm not free to walk around, free to be who I am, I'm not free to see other moms out, single black moms with their kids, enjoying their kids.”
• “I was having these thoughts that I wasn't safe in my house,”
• “For whatever reason, I don't know, I was paranoid and needed to get out of the house.”

Arrest and charges

Ramsey County charged Gaines with second-degree murder and with attempted murder in the second degree.

The complaint against Gaines said she followed her boys off the bridge after removing her shirt and pants.

Trial and plea

Gaines pleaded guilty on August 13, 2004.

Sentencing

Gaines was sentenced to 19 years in prison for murder and 14 years for attempted murder.

Mental health and treatment history

Gaines received psychiatric treatment after she was found wandering the streets with her four children, “talking and singing nonsensically,” according to court records. She was committed to the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter for a psychiatric evaluation after a doctor found she was suffering from psychosis and was unable to care for herself.

She was later sentenced to prison terms for the twins’ deaths and the attempted murder of her surviving twin.

Before the incident, at a Ramsey County court hearing on August 7, 2002, Gaines agreed to voluntarily receive psychiatric treatment and take medication. She was released from those requirements on February 11, 2003.

Gaines’s treatment included neuroleptic medications and a requirement to follow doctors’ treatment and after-care orders, and to abstain from alcohol and mind-altering substances, under a court order. A medical file described her as having been diagnosed with “Major Depression with Psychotic Features,” schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.

At times she was described as having manic behavior and as being unable to care for herself. A doctor petitioned for a court order to hold Gaines at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and said she was unable to care for herself, diagnosing major depression with psychotic features after examining her.

Family and aftermath

Supreme Knowledge Allah was cared for by his father, Khalid Allah.

Gaines also had two children ages 7 and 3, who were out of town with relatives at the time of the incident. Supreme Knowledge Allah was later described as caring about reading, football, and rap, and as wanting to be “A policeman, because I like to help people.” Supreme Knowledge knew he was a twin and that his brother was dead.

Gaines’s younger sister, Natalie Doss, raised the older children, who were in Chicago visiting their father on July 4, 2003. Gaines’s mother, Florida Doss, was described as visiting the state women’s prison in Shakopee. Gaines’s family gathered at Natalie’s Frogtown house on Father’s Day for baked chicken, greens, and homemade desserts.

The narrative included commentary attributed to relatives and associates:

• Florida Doss said: “Until mental illness is addressed like it's supposed to be, these stories are going to keep happening and keep happening because they just sweep it under the rug,”
• Florida Doss said: “If I thought for a minute my child wasn't sick and she just did that, I wouldn't support her and visit her,”
• Natalie Doss said: “I never thought my child would take my grandchild's life -- not ever in a million years.”
• Khalid Allah said: “I explain to him the best I can or the best I think he can understand right now,” and “When he comes out and says 'I want to see her,' he can,”
• Gaines’s friend Rhonda Ingram said: “a wonderful mother” and that “the system had failed her,” and said Gaines had been “begging for help,”
• Sue Abderholden said: “Naomi Gaines is one of the women who raised awareness about postpartum depression,”
• Tracy Buford said: “As far as I know, she is a sweet person,” and “She lived alone with the kids, but she got a lot of help from her mother and sister,”
• A county attorney Susan Gaertner said at a news conference: “this crime is so incomprehensible . . . it defies understanding,” and later said: “There's a human reaction, 'She had to be crazy,' ” and “But the law in Minnesota sets a very high standard [for mental-illness defense].”

Other details

Gaines was described as a vocalist in the rap group NSL, or North Star Legends, which had performed in St. Paul and recently in Princeton, Minnesota. Her stage name was Naomi, and she also went by “Pleasant.”

Gaines’s stage and personal background was included alongside discussion of postpartum depression and mental illness in the narrative. Gaines reported she was no longer on medications after being stable for five years and stated during a visit: “right now, my life is actually pretty good.”

In the aftermath narrative, Gaines was described as writing in prison, including ballads to raps and the first chapters of a memoir titled “Victory.” She also planned to perform Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven,” at an upcoming prison recital.