Child found wandering on West Side

February 26, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Charges are expected to be filed against the mother of a 4-year-old girl found wandering around a West Side street Wednesday morning.

Police were called to the 100 block of North Bon Air Avenue about 8:45 a.m., where a woman said a neighbor had found the child on the corner of North Bon Air and Connecticut avenues screaming and crying loudly, and then brought the child to her home.

Reports said the child had on a coat with no shirt underneath, pants and boots, but the boots were very wet. The woman who took her in gave her a shirt and told police the child was very cold, reports said.

The child spoke with an officer and said her mother left her by herself to take an older sister to school, reports said. The child said she missed her mother and went outside to find her.

Officers went to the girl’s house to look for her mother and found footprints that appeared to come from a child in the snow. They knocked and received no answer but noticed the door was unlocked. Reports said police could find no one inside the home.

Police called Mahoning County Children Services to the scene to take custody of the child. Reports said the child’s mother called police about 10:15 a.m. to tell them her child was missing. She was told to come to the police station where her daughter was.

Reports said the mother told police she took her daughter to school and a brother was supposed to be watching her younger child. Police told her they checked her house and no one was there.

The woman was taken into custody on a charge of child endangering and taken to the Mahoning County jail. She has yet to be formally charged in municipal court. A police spokesman said Wednesday afternoon that charges are expected to be filed.

The child is in the custody of children services.