The driver of a southwest Atlanta day care van was in custody Monday night after a toddler was left in the vehicle for about two hours, police said.
Atlanta police spokesman Officer Ralph Woolfolk told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the 2-year-old boy was discovered in a locked van outside the New Beginnings Learning Center on Sylvan Road after his mother reported him missing. The child was alert, conscious and breathing and was being evaluated at the scene by emergency medical personnel.
Channel 2 Action News reported that the child was discovered around 7:30 p.m. and had been left in the van for about two hours. Woolfolk told the AJC that the driver of the van, Shavonda Dailey, was in custody and would be charged in connection with the incident.
“I am unsure as to what those charges are at this time,” Woolfolk said.
The child’s grandmother, Delandra Evans, told Channel 2 that Dailey’s alleged were actions “careless.”
“I dont know why the young lady forgot him, I dont know,” Evans said. “This don’t make no sense to me.”
Monday's incident marks the second time a child was left in a metro Atlanta day care van in just over a month. A judge issued a temporary closure order for the Bright Achievers Pre-K facility in Austell after a 2-year-old girl was left in a van for more than five hours on May 5.
Six people, including the center’s owner, were charged in that case.
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