WSVN 7News reported that a South Miami mother appeared before a judge after authorities stated her 5-year-old daughter was discovered unattended inside a Family Store twice within less than a week.
Jasmine Shalese Greer stood before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Elisabeth M. Espinosa on Wednesday afternoon, facing two counts of child neglect. “Am I reading this correctly? This is the same child that it happened.” Judge Espinosa asked during the hearing. The prosecutor confirmed, “I believe it happened on November 6 and then on November 10.”
South Miami Police said that officers were dispatched to the Family Dollar situated in the 5900 block of Southwest 64th Street following the discovery of the girl roaming about without adult supervision at approximately 1 p.m. on Friday, November 6.
Investigators said the child, who is nonverbal and on the autism spectrum, wore a soiled diaper and could not communicate with officers. Surveillance video captured her running behind the store before entering. Moments before investigators arrived, she played with a toy and ate chocolates on the store floor.
Store Employees Step in as Police Arrive
Speaking to WSVN 7News in Spanish, a store employee described the girl entering the establishment alone. “The little girl entered the store. She was running around and grabbed chocolates and then we alerted somebody in the community who called the police,” she said. “My manager took the little girl under their wing and we waited for police to arrive.”
Police reported that no adult was on sight when they arrived. During the response, the child’s cellphone rang. Officers determined the caller was Greer, who told them she was attempting to locate her daughter.
When Greer arrived at the store, she told officers she had been cleaning her apartment when she realized the child was missing. She acknowledged that the girl had a history of wandering off. Greer added that she had gone to the apartment complex leasing office to review surveillance footage to determine where her daughter had gone.
Second Incident Leads to Arrest
On Tuesday afternoon, November 10, exactly four days afterward, law enforcement received notification from an anxious resident reporting that the identical child had once again been located alone at the same Family Dollar.
The child, seen wearing only a T-shirt and a soiled diaper, appeared in surveillance footage running alone through the parking lot behind the store. Officers found Greer in the computer room of her apartment complex and took her into custody.
“We take the protection of our children here in South Miami very serious, and she failed to supervise that autistic child, knowing that she has a tendency to run away, so we arrested her for the child neglect on both cases,” said South Miami Police Sgt. Fernando Bosch.
During Wednesday’s court proceedings, Espinosa verified that Greer’s daughter, along with her two other children, are currently being housed by the Florida Department of Children and Families. “It’s sad because this child is autistic nonverbal and she needs to be supervised. There should be an extra type of care for a child like that and the mother has failed to do that,” Bosch said.
Greer is held on a $20,000 bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in West Miami-Dade. She has been ordered to stay away from her 5-year-old daughter.
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