FeedsChildren found alone in park; mom charged
An Ypsilanti woman will face felony charges after she allegedly left her two children in a van at Griffin Park for two hours early Monday morning.
Qamara Bilquis Muhammad, 24, is due back in court on July 21 for a preliminary examination.
Police say a nearby resident called 911 at 2:30 a.m. upon hearing children yelling for their mother from the park at Cherry Hill and Sheldon roads.
Officers found the brother and sister, ages 3 and 5, holding hands and crying out near the van. The siblings said they had been sleeping inside the van and woke to find their mother gone.
Shortly after police had secured the children, Muhammad returned to the park, driven there by an acquaintance.
“She reported to us that her car had broken down,” said Sgt. Rick Pomorski of the Canton police. “She called a guy she knew in the area and walked there. Two and a half hours later they came back.”
The man said Muhammad hadn’t told him the children were in the van, added Pomorski.
“The guy knew nothing about the kids,” he said.
Police took Muhammad into custody and she was arraigned at the 35th District Court in Plymouth Monday afternoon. She was charged with two counts of second-degree child abuse and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Second-degree child abuse covers criminal mistreatment such as willful abandonment, failure to provide food, clothing or shelter necessary for welfare, or the commission of a reckless act which results in serious mental or physical harm. If convicted, the defendant could receive up to four years in prison for each charge.
According to Pomorski, Muhammad said her children had been sleeping when the van broke down and she did not want to wake them when she went for help.
Muhammad was given a $5,000 cash bond.
Protective services were notified and the children are staying with a family member, Pomorski said. They were not physically injured, he added.
