HOUSTON – A Houston man was charged with child abandonment after he allegedly left his children in a car while he went thrift shopping and came back to find his 1-year-old son dead, court documents state.
The incident happened on May 20 when 26-year-old Adrian Dreshuan Middleton Sr. went shopping at the Family Thrift Store around 11 a.m. and emerged an hour and 45 minutes later, according to court documents.
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Middleton's 6-year-old daughter told investigators that her younger brother was crying and that she began playing with him to stop the crying, but when she stopped playing with him, he started crying again. Court documents state the child admitted to wrapping the seat belt around her younger brother's neck out of frustration and thought he had fallen asleep. The 1-year-old, however, was dead.
Court documents state Middleton exited the store and loaded up items in the trunk when he saw his daughter crying. He said his daughter told him she had to go to the bathroom and that she did something bad. That's when Middleton saw his son with the seatbelt wrapped around his neck and called 911, according to court records.
Despite unwrapping the belt from the child's neck and performing CPR on him until first responders arrived, the 1-year-old was pronounced dead at Texas Children's Hospital, according to court documents.
Middleton is now facing a felony charge of abandoning a child.