The Iglesia Apostoles y Profetas, a Pentecostal church located in San Jose, California, has confirmed the September death of Arely Naomi Proctor, 3, happened following an attempted exorcism.

The child was taken to the church on Sept. 24 by her mother and uncle. The child’s mother, Claudia Hernandez, had claimed that the little girl was “possessed by an evil spirit” because she would start crying and screaming after waking up at night from time to time.

Hernandez, her brother, and the girls’ grandfather, who is also the church’s pastor, conducted the exorcism. Following the exorcism, the child passed away after about 12 hours.

Christian Headlines reports:

At the church, Hernandez, Proctor’s uncle and Rene Huezo, the church’s pastor and the girl’s grandfather, tried to conduct an exorcism on the child. She died about 12 hours later.

According to the police report, Hernandez tried “to stick her finger down the victim’s throat and squeezed the victim’s neck to induce vomiting” in order to cast out the demon. She also attempted to open Proctor’s mouth with her hands. When Huezo arrived at the church to assist Hernandez and her brother in praying over the girl, the three of them reportedly took turns holding the child down by her neck, abdomen, and legs to induce vomiting until Proctor “vomited a clear/purple liquid.” The incident left the girl with injuries around “her eyes, throat/neck, and chest.”

As stated in the report, Hernandez called police around 8:12 pm and reported that her daughter died at the church between 6:00-6:30 pm following the exorcism. The child was pronounced deceased by Valley Medical Center at 8:59 pm.

The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner’s office had ruled the death of the child as homicide, following which Hernandez was arrested.

In January, Hernandez was arrested on felony child abuse charges after The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner’s office ruled Proctor’s death a homicide.

The police report stated that no “lifesaving measures” were performed to help Proctor and that her last meal was the night before her death, in which she was only given “about 6 oz of water.”

In a recent interview with Mercury News, Pastor Huezo explained that they were trying to follow Biblical instructions on casting out demons.

“If you read the Bible, you’ll see that Jesus casts away demons and made sick people healthy again,” he noted. “It’s not when I want to do it; it’s when God, in his will, wants to heal the person. The preacher is like an instrument of God; what we do is what God says.”

Read the full article here.

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