ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 21, 1996 TAG: 9609230063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
A 4-month-old girl who nearly drowned earlier this month while she was being baptized at a breakaway Catholic church died Thursday.
Sade Victoria Omotola had been on life support since Sept. 8 at Children's Hospital, where she was rushed after blood began streaming from her nose and her face turned blue during the baptism ceremony.
Authorities were waiting for autopsy results. Police spokesman Anthony Leary said the death was being investigated by the city's homicide division.
Father August Griffin immersed the baby's head three times into a baptismal tub during the ceremony at Imani Temple on Capitol Hill.
Temple Founder George Augustus Stallings expressed ``deepest sympathy and spiritual support'' for the girl's family in a statement Friday night but defended baptism by immersion as ``sound and safe.''
``The answer to infant Sade's dilemma is not in the method, but in her medical condition,'' Stallings said, noting that the child was born three months prematurely. - Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 30 linesby CNB