ATLANTA — The Atlanta Police Department has the mother of an abandoned 3-year-old boy in custody.
On Thursday morning, police said they went to a home on Belfort Road in southeast Atlanta in reference to calls about an abandoned child.
When officers got to the scene, they found a child they say looked to have been suffering from malnutrition and with minor scratches and lacerations.
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APD told Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes they arrested the mother. When Channel 2 Action News arrived at the house, Fernandes saw the mother in the backseat of a police car.
Speaking to Fernandes, neighbor Tony Birdsong said he’d come home “last night and it was ambulances and police and everything out there. Evidently the kid just walked away from—somebody was supposed to be watching him, his mother is working at night and my neighbors was outside and everyone was outside, so that’s pretty much the extent of what I know."
Channel 2 Action News also saw police take a man into custody.
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Police said Grady EMS units responded to the scene Thursday morning to assess the child, who was then transported to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Hughes Spalding Hospital for treatment.
APD said officers canvassed the area and knocked on doors trying to find the child’s guardians but were unsuccessful.
The department’s Special Victims Unit also responded to the scene and the Georgia Department of Family & Child Services was notified of the child’s location and condition.
In an afternoon update, APD identified the mother as Lakisha Holmes.
Holmes and the child’s stepfather Andre Roundtree, were both charged with second degree cruelty to children and reckless conduct. All of their charges are felonies.
Police said Holmes was taken to the Fulton County Jail while Roundtree was taken to Grady Detention after becoming combative with officers during his arrest.
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