A pair of senior care assistants are currently facing felony charges – for filming themselves assaulting a dementia-stricken patient for followers on social media.
The disturbing video shows 20-year-old Shy’Tiona Bishop and 18-year-old Jada Harris terrorizing the female senior at a residential care home in Northeast Florida, laughing and mocking her all the time.
The footage was live-streamed on April 3 on one of the staff’s Instagram accounts and then aired during a press conference chaired by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office on Monday.
The unnamed senior – who has been confirmed to be a dementia patient at the Melbourne facility – can be heard screaming as the pair repeatedly joke and laugh for the camera, ignoring the woman’s cries.
At one point, staffers deliberately blocked the woman’s access to her bathroom and reluctantly helped her put on some pants while complaining that they were forced to care for the senior. Both women have since been fired.
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Disturbing video released Monday by police shows 18-year-old Jada Harris (left) and Shy’Tiona Bishop, 20, terrorizing a female senior at an assisted living center in Northeast Florida
‘I’m sorry, yes. She’s embarrassed,” Harris can be heard saying in the clip, which aired live on April 3 and then aired during a press conference conducted by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office on Monday.
‘I’m sorry, yes. She’s embarrassing,” Harris can be heard saying in the clip, which Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey branded Monday “disgusting” after announcing charges against the duo, who have since been relieved of their posts at the retirement home.
Ivey reprimanded the women for their behavior and also denounced the state for setting both suspects’ bail at $6,000 or less, while Bishop’s was only set at $4,000, despite the range of violations.
At the meeting, the sheriff first revealed the elder abuse case after receiving a tip from someone who worked at the facility, identified Monday as Market Street Viera in Melbourne, about the April 3 live stream and a week of investigations.
“It disgusts me,” Ivey said during the meeting, which was also broadcast live.
“The perpetrators in this case are not only disgusting, but they are vile individuals who abused themselves via live streams of one of our elderly citizens suffering from dementia.”
He continued, “Beating an elderly person or assaulting someone is disgusting enough, but to make matters worse, they livestreamed the abuse.
“They even posted it on a livestream platform for their friends to watch, laugh about it while mocking this elderly person in her condition.”
Subsequent clips exposed the aforementioned behavior, showing followers of Harris’s account laughing along with the assistants at retirement homes as they abused their aging brand.
The footage was live-streamed on Harris’s account on April 3, and both women have since been fired and jailed for felony elder abuse
The unnamed senior – who has been confirmed to be a dementia patient at the Melbourne facility – can be heard screaming as the pair repeatedly joke on camera, ignoring the woman’s cries.
At one point, staffers deliberately blocked the woman’s access to her bathroom and reluctantly helped her put on some pants while complaining that they were forced to care for the senior. Both women have since been fired
The footage showed followers of Harris’ account laughing with the assistants at retirement homes as they misused their senior citizen sign
“Not only did their friends laugh, they even made comments back and forth about how she should be treated and put in a closet,” Ivey repeated.
The sheriff further revealed that the first tip pointing to the live stream – which was still in progress at the time – came from a Market Street Memory employee who noticed the elderly woman appeared to be distressed the day after the video was recorded .
Officials added that the patient had been living at the facility since August 2022 and praised the facility correctly contact the police as soon as they became aware of the images, and immediately fire the two employees afterwards.
However, Ivey would go on to criticize Florida lawmakers for slapping the duo with relatively loose ties given the magnitude of their offenses.
“Unfortunately, the bail is only $6,000 for Jada and $4,000 for Shy,” Ivey said, visibly annoyed. “Please, we will often find out that bonds are too low and I agree, it really is too low.”
He added: “Unfortunately, the state sets the bond limits when they are first arrested. They won’t let us do it because I can tell you if they let me do it the band would be like hell freeze over when these two get out.”
According to local incarceration records, both women remain in custody and have not yet posted bail. They were led away by police over the weekend from the retirement home, which advertises itself as a “luxury elderly care home.”
Harris was seen being led away by police from the retirement home, which advertises itself as a “luxury retirement home.” The 18-year-old also faces additional charges of aggravated abuse and interception and disclosure of wired, oral or electronic communications
Bishop was arrested on similar charges, including video voyeurism and abuse and neglect of an elderly person
The facility said in a statement after the couple’s arrest Sunday, “We are shocked and appalled by this incident of elder abuse by two individuals who were entrusted to provide care to a vulnerable resident of our facility.”
“We take this situation very seriously and have taken immediate action to discharge the two individuals involved in this incident. The behavior depicted in the video feeds live-streamed by these two people is abhorrent and will not be tolerated.”
Employees further emphasized that the actions of the employees of the two axes had gone unseen until the live stream and violated the standards of the facility.
Our mission is to welcome, care for and serve our elderly. Our facility must be a beacon of quality senior living, where a sense of family is created through servant leaders. What happened in this incident goes against our facility standards in every way,” the statement from the retirement home said, adding that the victim had no injuries.
“We are grateful to report that the victim suffered no physical harm and is being provided with every comfort and care.”
The facility said they are currently working with the victim and her family, and are still cooperating with local law enforcement.
They said, “Our thoughts go out to the victim and her family, and we will do everything we can to see justice done.”