It was just 37 degrees Thursday morning when a Mableton man saw a naked 5-year-old girl running down the street toward him, crying for her mother.
Now, that mother is in the Cobb County jail, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Clifton Battle told Channel 2 he was walking to the bus stop to drop off his grandchildren around 7 a.m. when he spotted the child running in the street near Mableton Parkway.
“She could have got right out there at the highway and Mableton Parkway, and we never (would’ve) seen her again,” he said. “(I was) at the right place at the right time.”
The girl ran over to him, and he flagged down another neighbor while trying to calm the child down, he told the news station.
“She was crying, so I pulled her close to me. I wrapped her in my jacket. I called 911,” the other neighbor, who asked Channel 2 to remain anonymous, said. “I let her know that she’s going to be OK.”
Cobb police showed up at the scene around the same time as the child’s mother, Modupe Kehinde. According to an arrest warrant obtained by Channel 2, she admitted to officers to leaving the child home alone so she could drop another child off at school.
Kehinde was booked in jail on a reckless conduct charge, and she also has an immigration hold from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, jail records show. Her booking lists her place of birth as Nigeria.
As of Thursday night, she remained in jail on a $1,320 bond. It’s unclear who currently has custody of the Kehinde’s children, and police didn’t disclose that information to Channel 2.
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