Inset: Christopher S. Pearson (St. Louis, Mo., Police Department). Background: The St. Louis area where Pearson is accused of abandoning his infant child (Google Maps).
A Missouri father is facing criminal charges after authorities say he left his infant child in a car seat in the middle of a St. Louis roadway, misled the baby’s mother about the child’s whereabouts, and later fled from police in a pursuit that ended after he drove through two fences and allegedly threw a handgun from his vehicle.
Christopher Sean Pearson, 36, has been charged with first-degree child endangerment and resisting arrest by fleeing, creating a substantial risk of serious injury or death to another person, according to court records.
In a probable cause affidavit tied to the child endangerment charge, St. Louis police said officers were called on July 15 to the area of Goodfellow Boulevard and Natural Bridge Road after a report came in about “an abandoned infant in a car seat in a driving lane.”
Witnesses told investigators they saw “the driver of a blue Tesla abandon the car seat in the road” before leaving the scene. One witness thought at first that the carrier was empty, but after realizing a baby was inside, she “did end up moving the car seat and the infant out of the road,” the affidavit says.
Shortly after the infant was allegedly left behind, Pearson received a call from the child’s mother, who asked where the baby was because Pearson had been caring for the child, authorities wrote. Pearson allegedly responded that he had “left the kid outside a police station.”
Police later found Pearson behind the wheel of the same Tesla, which court documents state was registered in his name.
A separate affidavit says officers identified the vehicle as one wanted in connection with the child endangerment incident reported on Goodfellow Boulevard.
“The car passed directly in front of us and the defendant looked at us, and then sped away,” the affidavit states.
Police said they witnessed Pearson ignoring numerous traffic controls and “nearly causing collisions with other vehicles” as they pursued the Tesla. Police attempted to deploy spike strips, but Pearson avoided them.
“He approached a dead end and jumped the curb and drove through a fence into a yard, then through another fence, over another sidewalk, until finally stopping,” police wrote. “While fleeing, he threw a pistol from the vehicle.”
Following Pearson’s arrest, police said they searched the Tesla and recovered two additional firearms.
The affidavit further noted that Pearson has a criminal history dating back to 2007, which includes several failures to appear, and noted that he would “not likely voluntarily appear” for a hearing.
Pearson appeared in St. Louis Circuit Court Thursday, when a judge ordered him to remain in detention without bond after finding probable cause to believe he would not appear if released and that he posed “a danger to the crime victim, the community, or another person.”
