Mom Charged with Half-naked Tot Child Endangerment
Posted: Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Philadelphia, PA–In the East Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, a SEPTA bus quickly stopped when it found an unusual sight early Sunday morning.
A toddler, without shoes or socks, and wearing only a pair of inside-out pajama pants, was waddling into a busy intersection of Chew Avenue and Montana street. Many witnesses were relieved when the baby was made safe, and police began a two-hour hunt to find who the parents were.
The toddler’s mother, Tonya Robinson, was found sitting on the stoop of her home approximately one block from where her son was found. She said that she had not seen the boy since 6:30 a.m., four hours earlier from when investigators found her, but had also not reported him missing.
Malik had multiple bruises and scars and was taken by police to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in order to be checked. Robinson was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and further charges are expected to come, after the medical exam is finished.
Lt. Al Rossi of the Special Victims Unit said “It’s atrocious. A 3-year-old kid walking around alone in the city could have been killed. God was with him.”
Bettia Prince was on her way home from dropping her children off at school when she saw the child walking into a store. Apparently contractors who were doing renovations escorted the child out around 8:20am and just left him on the sidewalk with no other adult in sight.
“They just left him there on the sidewalk by himself; I couldn’t believe it,” Prince said.
That is when she got out of her car in order to take the child, but Malik was walking into the street, directly in front of SEPTA bus. “The driver had to stomp on his brakes real quick,” said Prince.
Prince took the boy to a daycare nearby where he was fed and clothed, apologizing that Prince had to leave because of liability and security reasons.
Prince waited for officers at Emlen School and then accompanied them as they took Malik door-to-door, asking if anyone could provide information on the child’s identity.
When they approached his house, the mother had little comment and asked for her boy back. Police instead arrested her and her boyfriend because Robinson had a bloodied shirt and swollen lip. They charged him with domestic-abuse offenses.
Prince, who is 7 months pregnant and a foster mother, is supposed to be on bed rest.
“This is definitely not what the doctor ordered,” she laughed. “But I don’t want to do what his mother did and just let him go. I want to stay with him and make sure he’s OK.”
Ambrose praised Prince, saying, “This is really a community responsibility.”
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