Henry County

Mother wants answers after her child was found wandering alone after escaping metro Atlanta day care

HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News learned a 3-year-old boy was wondering in a parking lot in Stockbridge alone, with his parents nowhere in sight.

Now, the mother of the child wants answers from the day care.

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Body camera video shows Marlon calling for his parents after a Stockbridge Police officer found him wandering alone in a parking lot.

A woman helps translate Spanish for the officer, but Marlon appears scared and confused.

“They did not notify me,” Ania Campos told Channel 2′s Matt Johnson.

Campos, Marlon’s mother has her son back home with her now and he has some minor cuts on his foot and leg. What she doesn’t have is answers as to how he was able to leave the daycare where she dropped him off.

“What were the teachers or person in charge doing when Marlon escaped?” Campos asked.

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It was around 11:30 a.m. Friday morning when Stockbridge police officer Granville Barrett says he spotted Marlon alone off of Rock Quarry Road.

“I put the child in my car in my front seat so he could get some air,” Barrett said.

He said 15 minutes later someone from ABC Early Learning Academy a quarter a mile away showed up and said they were looking for him.

“The child climbed the fence in the back because they were like playing outside and when they did a headcount, they realized one of the children was missing,” Barrett said.

Marlon’s mother says she didn’t learn about what happened until after police officers had brought him back.

Stockbridge police told us that no 911 calls came from the daycare.

“They didn’t reach out to me or my husband. As parents that’s the greatest frustration and them not reaching out to the authorities, that should have been their first call,” Campos said.

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No one at the daycare answered any questions we had for them today.

State records show the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning cited them in 2019 for not reporting a serious injury to a 6-year-old that required medical treatment.

Officer Barrett received a special recognition at Monday’s city council meeting but says he’s just glad no one was hurt.

“It was God’s will. I think he put me there that day right time right place,” Barrett said.

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