Shanae D. Davis (PBCSO), Jackson’s Daycare and the lunchbox in which she allegedly left her gun (WPEC screenshots)
A 39-year-old mother in Florida was arrested after she allegedly sent her child to day care with a Glock 43 9 mm handgun stashed inside of his lunchbox. Shanae D. Davis was taken into custody last week and charged with one count of felony child neglect without causing great bodily harm and one misdemeanor count of allowing a minor to obtain a firearm and take it to school, court documents reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to a probable cause affidavit, an officer with the Riviera Beach Police Department at about noon on March 14, 2024, responded to a day care in the area regarding a “lost property found” call.
Police said that a teacher at the day care, the name of which was redacted in the document, had called the emergency dispatcher and “advised that she had just found a gun inside of one of the children’s lunch boxes.”
West Palm Beach, Florida CBS affiliate WPEC reported that the name of the facility was Jackson’s Daycare Center in the 1200 block of W31st Street in Riviera Beach.
Upon arriving at the scene, the officer made contact with the teacher, who advised that she had already contacted Davis, the mother of the armed child, and returned the firearm to her. The officer then made contact with Davis and she advised him that the gun was now safely stored in the glove compartment of her vehicle. The officer confiscated the black and gray weapon from Davis.
Davis then spoke to police about the events that led to her child ending up with the firearm in their lunchbox.
“Davis advised that she normally leaves her gun inside of her glove box, however, there have been break ins at her apartment complex, so lately she has been taking the weapon out of the car,” the affidavit states. “Davis advised that this morning when she was getting (her child) ready for school, she placed her gun inside of (her child’s) lunchbox because she does not carry a purse and did not want (the gun) to be in the open.”
Davis explained that she simply forgot to take the gun out of her child’s lunch box until, several hours later, she received a call from the day care “advising her to get to the school right away.”
Police spoke to the teacher at the day care, who allegedly said that when she opened Davis’ child’s lunch box and saw the firearm, she immediately “screamed ‘GUN’ and that is when another teacher came inside to assist her” and see if the weapon was real or not.
Police noted that no one was injured in the incident.
Davis was booked into Palm Beach County Jail on Thursday, March 14 and released after posting a bond of $2,000, records show. Davis is currently scheduled to appear in court again on April 18.
