Bodycam footage of Ciara Washington (center) being arrested in Sunrise, Fla. (via WPLG).
A shopping trip to Walmart turned into a nightmare for a mother in Florida when she was arrested in the store’s parking lot after allegedly leaving her three young children unattended in a hot car.
Ciara Washington, 29 years old, faces charges of child neglect after her arrest on September 14. The incident took place outside a Walmart in Sunrise, Florida. According to an arrest report obtained by local news station WPLG, Washington was captured on surveillance footage entering the store shortly after 3 p.m. and did not return to her vehicle until 3:46 p.m.
During her time inside the store, concerned customers called 911 to report that Washington’s three young children had been left unattended in a hot car while the outside temperature soared to 90 degrees, with the windows still rolled up.
Police body camera footage, which was shared with WPLG, shows an officer confronting Washington regarding the alleged incident. In the footage, Washington denies leaving her children inside the car, which officers allege was found shut off and with closed windows. The officer points out that “multiple” 911 calls were made by people who saw the children alone in Washington’s Nissan Sentra, without air conditioning, as temperatures soared to “90 degrees.”
WPLG reported that according to police, the air temperature was 82 degrees.
In the footage, the arresting officer advises Washington, “Mom to mom, it’s 90 degrees outside, you left them in the car long enough for multiple people to call 911. It cannot happen.” She also cautions Washington, “This is South Florida. People kidnap kids all the time.”
The arrest documents indicate that the eldest child was 7 years old while the other two were under 2. The report notes that one child was observed on the car floor, with “another somehow in the trunk of the car.” Police mentioned that witnesses described the children as overheated and covered in sweat.
One witness said they were alerted to the car after hearing a faint knock coming from inside the vehicle.
Police said that Washington eventually admitted to leaving the children in the car, despite initially denying she had left them alone.
Washington was charged with three counts of child neglect and booked into jail on a $3,000 bond. She no longer appears on the Broward County inmate roster.
