Police: Arizona Couple Left Child In Car To Gamble In Casino
An Arizona couple has been arrested for leaving a young child in a car. However, the reason for leaving the little boy in the car is what’s attracting media attention. ABC News 15 reports that Brad Porter Jr. and Jessica Lopez face a variety of charges in association with the incident — and it was all because they wanted to gamble their last bit of money in a Scottsdale casino.
Police say that the incident took place on Sunday afternoon, in the parking lot of Casino Arizona in Scottsdale. They were called to the location, where they noted that a young child was locked in a car outside of the establishment. Brad Porter Jr., and Jessica Lopez were arrested outside of the Casino Arizona almost immediately.
The Arizona couple admits that they left the five-year-old boy alone in the car for “a couple of hours,” but they insist that they checked on the boy every 30 minutes to make sure that he was okay. They also claim that he was safe, because he was sleeping in the car. However, it must be noted that on Sunday afternoon, in Scottsdale, temperatures reached as high as 95 degrees. In a locked car, this is hot enough to roast a small child. However, no reports are clarifying on whether or not the vehicle’s air conditioning was running at the time of the incident.
12 News reported that Brad Porter Jr. is remorseful about what happened on Sunday. In a jailhouse interview, the young father was in tears while recounting the incident that took place this past weekend. Porter claims that he and his girlfriend went to the casino because they wanted to try to turn their last tiny bit of money into a larger amount, in an apparent desperate attempt at making some money.
@AdrianPeterson Actually, Shanesha Taylor’s kids were 2 years old and 6 months old, and she got probation, not jail https://t.co/S9PESJ8Jhj
— Debby Witt (@debbywitt) September 23, 2016
This isn’t the first time a family’s reported hardships have led them to make the decision to leave a child in a hot car. It’s also not the first time this has happened in the state of Arizona. A case out of the Valley of the Sun went viral a couple of years ago when a woman left her children in a car while she attended a job interview. Ultimately, Shanesha Taylor was sentenced to 18 years supervised probation for that terrible decision, even though her children were never harmed in the incident.
5-Month-Old Baby Found Dead in Hot Car After Arizona Couple ‘Forgot’ Him: Police https://t.co/ZSfH1kSTXz pic.twitter.com/JuNxxqmy4S
— KTLA (@KTLA) October 4, 2016
Earlier this year, a California mom was arrested when authorities found her passed-out drunk on the ground next do her car. Inside of the car, was a young baby — who had been trapped in the vehicle for an unknown length of time. Police say that 43-year-old Stephanie Chiratti was charged with willful cruelty to a child, obstructing a police officer and resisting arrest. The infant was taken to the hospital and treated for heat sickness, which came as a direct result of being locked in the hot car.
Also in Arizona this month, an 18-year-old young man and his 23-year-old girlfriend have been arrested after they reportedly left a five-month-old baby alone to die in a hot car. Jose Garcia Jr., and Monique Avila say that they “forgot” that they were caring for the infant, when he was left in the car. Police say that the child was left in the sweltering-hot car for approximately four hours, while the young couple were inside of an air-conditioned apartment in Peoria.
As for this latest case, the Arizona couple arrested on Sunday have both been charged with child abuse and endangerment. Police say that the couple has also been charged with child endangerment and drug-related charges, stemming from marijuana and paraphernalia found in the vehicle where the child was left.
[Featured Images by Scottsdale Police Mugshots]
