A wandering child found scared and crying in an apartment complex in Roswell

FULTON COUNTY, Ga — On Sept. 8, neighbors woke up to a screaming child wandering around the apartment complex hungry and afraid. They called police.

He was left home alone for hours and his mom left him without food, according to police.

Channel 2′s Mike Petchenik caught up with another Roswell mom, Janeisha Edmonds, shopping for groceries to get her reaction to the allegations of a mom leaving her child home alone.

“I find it to be very crazy,” Edmonds said. “My mother always brought us with her, and she had four kids and I always bring my kids with me. Safety, all kinds of things can happen.”

Officers went to the apartment complex off Old Holcomb Bridge Way to find the child alone and visibly upset.

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“The mother arrived on scene and stated she’d only been gone 15 minutes, was picking up the father of this child,” said Officer Sean Thompson of the Roswell Police Department.

Investigators said the story from the child’s mother, Kristina Long, did not add up because the father’s workplace was at least 40 minutes away.

“She was probably gone an hour and a half to two hours leaving the child alone,” Thompson said.

The child’s father did not want to comment, calling it a personal situation.

“Should be something that happens to them. You shouldn’t leave kids at home, especially this young,” Edmonds said.

Police charged Long with reckless conduct, but she was not taken to jail.

Due to the pandemic, the jail is not accepting non-violent offenders, but Long was given a citation and the Department of Family and Children Services was notified to investigate.

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Cox Media Group