Neighbors find child left home alone running naked toward busy road, police say

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A couple of Cobb County neighbors rescued a 5-year-old girl they say was running toward a busy road, naked and crying for her mother.

Police say it was just 37 degrees outside Thursday morning when the neighbors stepped in to comfort the scared little girl.

“She run down and said, ‘My momma, my momma,’” Clifton Battle said.

Battle told Channel 2's Matt Johnson he was the only person around when child ran toward him naked and screaming for her mother.

“She could have got right out there at the highway and Mableton Parkway and never seen her again,” Battle said.

He said he was in front of his subdivision off Mableton Parkway to take his grandchildren to the school bus when he heard the little girl's cries.

TRENDING STORIES:

• EXCLUSIVE: Man says he fought off Atlanta Child Murders suspect
• Missing 1-year-old found safe; father on the run, police say
• Several students, 2 adults injured when bus overturns in chain-reaction crash

“I was at the right place at the right time,” Battle told Johnson.

He said he kept the girl calm while he flagged down a second neighbor who was pulling into the Mableton subdivision Thursday morning at around 7 a.m.

“She was crying so I pulled her closer to me, I wrapped her in my jacket, I called 911, I kissed her, I let her know that she’s going to be OK,” the other neighbor said, asking not to be identified.

She said the child's mother showed up just as Cobb County police did and she said the mother had a question.

“She asks the little girl why did she call the police? But I had to step in and say I called the police,” the neighbor said.

Police arrested Modupe Kehinde and charged her with reckless conduct.

An arrest warrant Johnson got hold of accuses the mother of admitting to leaving the 5-year-old home alone so she could drop another child off at school.

“There's no excuses for that,” Battle said.

Johnson went by the Kehinde's home Thursday night, but no one was there.

Battle said he feels bad for the mother but said he will never forget the amount of danger the little girl was in.

“When I left, it just hit me, and I just begin to cry, and I said God just imagine if I wasn’t there, something could have happened,” Battle said.

The mother also has an immigration hold on her and an ICE representative said that means she is subject for removal from the U.S.

Police haven’t said who currently has custody of the mother's children.

Cox Media Group