Mother arrested after child found wandering on street

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A North Brockway Avenue woman has a hearing today in Youngstown Municipal Court on a child-endangering charge after neighbors found her 4-year-old son wandering around the street Wednesday with no one home.

Police took Te’erai Gordon, 22, to the Mahoning County jail.

Officers were called to the West Side street about 10:10 a.m. by a neighbor who found the child. Reports said the child told police he woke up and no one was home. The child told officers he is left alone frequently with the television on, reports said.

The child was able to point to the house where he lives, reports said.

Gordon, the child’s mother, showed up while police were there and told police she had left the child with a juvenile relative, an uncle, who had gone to school, reports said. Reports did not say where the mother may have been.

Reports said Gordon did not seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation and told a worker for the county Children Services Board that she would not return any calls from CSB.

Besides the misdemeanor child-endangering charge, Gordon also was taken into custody for failing to appear in a traffic case. The child was placed in his grandmother’s care, reports said.