Mom charged with child neglect after son seen in Walmart in diaper amid cold snap: Reports
A Mississippi mother was arrested and charged with child neglect after police found that her 2-year-old son was only wearing a diaper inside a Walmart while the weather outside was below freezing.
The Byram Police Department did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment, but several outlets reported that police arrested the woman a Walmart at around 10:30 a.m. on January 17 after an employee took a video of the child in the store with only a diaper.
The temperature that day was 20 degrees Fahrenheit and there were colder wind chills.
The employee who filmed the video, Felicia Darling, told WJTV, that she was later fired for posting the video.
Shoppers dress the child
Darling confronted the mother in the store.
“He’s just an innocent soul. He didn’t ask to be here, so I took action, and I started recording her. Minutes into the video, she threw… she threw cold food on the baby, and he was sad and just looked down. It seemed like in his eyes he was just looking for help. He was crying out for help,” Darling told WJTV.
Darby told WLBT that it was only after customers approached the mother, that she took off her coat and wrapped it around the child.
”You’re a mother, a child represents you,” Darling told WLBT. “And if you come in the store fully clothed and your son is not, that shows a lot about your character and that shows a lot that you don’t care. How could you come in Walmart fully dressed knowing it’s a lot of people watching you? She probably thought nobody was going to step up, but, you know, we did.”
In the video, another customer could be seen buying the child some clothes and dressing him. The mother, who police later identified as a 26-year-old woman, could be seen flipping through her phone.
Mother charged, child removed
A police officer could be also seen walking behind the child's mother as she left the store. Officers learned that the child who was still shaking from the cold had been dressed by other shoppers in the store, WAFB reported.
Police then arrested the mother, and placed the child in a warm police car. The 2-year-old was evaluated by first responders, and Child Protective Services later released him to an approved relative, the outlet reported.
The woman was booked into the Hinds County Detention Center.