Cobb mom arrested after 4-year-old wanders away from house

Laura Cruz

Credit: Cobb County Sheriff's Office

Credit: Cobb County Sheriff's Office

Laura Cruz

A Cobb County mother is in jail on child cruelty charges after police said her 4-year-old son wandered out of her home while she was passed out “due to alcohol intoxication.”

Laura Cruz, 23, faces a felony second-degree cruelty to children charge and a misdemeanor count of reckless conduct in connection with the incident, which happened Aug. 13, according to an arrest warrant obtained by AJC.com.

It was 95 degrees outside when the child wandered away from the mobile home on Russell Drive in Kennesaw, the warrant said. The barefoot boy walked about two blocks to a day care on Cherokee Street and cried out to the staff for help, according to the warrant.

Police arrived to take the child home, and when he showed officers where he lived, they found the home “to be in complete disarray,” the warrant said.

Officers said all of the doors to the home were unlocked. There were roaches throughout the mobile home, clothing strewn all around and rotten food on the living room floor, according to the warrant.

Cruz was found passed out in a bedroom with a second child whose nose was bleeding profusely. Police tried to wake Cruz up, but she did not stir until an officer performed a “sternum rub,” the warrant said.

The woman told officers her husband had cheated on her, so she drank a Four Loko and passed out, according to the warrant.

Both children were taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital for evaluation. Cruz was booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on Wednesday, where she remains in lieu of $11,220 bond.

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