Casino patron charged after 3 year old wanders away www.privateofficer.com

HARVEY, La. July 11 2010

A Baton Rouge woman was arrested after Harvey police said her 3-year-old child was found wandering alone in a casino parking lot Saturday morning.

Erica Williams, 27, was arrested Saturday afternoon. Police said someone called 911 to report a child left in a vehicle at the Boomtown Casino on Peters Road in Harvey.

Police said Second District Patrol Officer Brad Stanifer met with Boomtown security officers and learned that a 3-year-old boy was brought into their security office by a patron who found the child wandering in the parking lot near a red car.

The witness reported that the child appeared overheated and had urinated on himself, police said.

Stanifer said he also learned that a woman, identified as Williams, had walked into the security office to inquire about her missing son just before 12 p.m.

Police said when questioned, Williams admitted leaving her son in her car while she went into the casino two hours earlier. She told police that she went to check on him at about 11:30 a.m. and realized he wasn’t there.

Williams told investigators that she left the keys in the ignition with the air conditioning fan on, the engine off and the windows rolled up.

The child was examined by EMS and turned over to child protection. He was then placed in the custody of his grandmother, who officers summoned to the scene, police said.

Williams was arrested and charged with one count of child abandonment.