Inset: Lovenia Brooks (Brevard County Sheriff’s Office). Background: News footage shows the Walmart in Melbourne, Florida, where Brooks is accused of leaving her children inside a hot vehicle (WESH).
A Florida mother was arrested after authorities said she left her two young children alone in a hot car while she went into a Walmart to buy PediaSure.
Lovenia Brooks, 33, was charged with two counts of child neglect after Melbourne police discovered her two children — including an infant — unattended in her Mitsubishi SUV during the July 11 incident. According to an arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, the red Mitsubishi was allegedly stopped in the fire lane outside the Walmart when a bystander noticed the children were alone and called police.
Investigators said the witness remained near the SUV, which was turned off with its windows rolled down. The affidavit says the baby was “actively upset and crying” when the bystander saw Brooks “quickly exiting the store” and returning to the vehicle about nine minutes after he first spotted the children.
Once Brooks got back into the SUV, the bystander told a responding Melbourne Police Department officer that she drove away “recklessly” and nearly caused a crash, according to police.
A traffic officer and the initial responding officer soon located Brooks’ red Mitsubishi and conducted a traffic stop. Both officers reported seeing the children in the back seat, with “one improperly buckled in a rear-facing car seat and the other juvenile in the back seat unsecured,” the affidavit states.
When officers questioned Brooks about leaving the children by themselves, she allegedly said she was “just quickly running inside” to purchase PediaSure for one of them. Asked why she had not brought the children into Walmart with her, Brooks responded that “she should have and that she was just trying to get one thing done,” police said.
Surveillance footage later confirmed that Brooks left the children unattended outside the Walmart for nine minutes before returning to the SUV, according to the affidavit. Police also noted that the temperature in Melbourne reached 96.6 degrees Fahrenheit on July 11, and a heat advisory was in effect at the time of the alleged incident.
In addition to two counts of child neglect, the traffic officer issued Brooks citations for leaving a child in a vehicle, failing to properly restrain an infant, and not wearing a seat belt.
Brooks was booked into the Brevard County Jail after undergoing a medical evaluation. She posted bond and was released on July 13. Her next court date was scheduled for Aug. 6.
