TorQuita Tashe Griffen faces several counts of child neglect after leaving her children with a firearm at a truck stop.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville mother has been arrested after she was accused of leaving her children at a truck stop with a loaded gun.
The Riviera Beach Police Department reported that on Monday, officers were called to a Marathon Gas station due to a driver not moving a tractor-trailer from a gas pump for more than three hours.
Upon arrival, officers say they found the truck, which was running, still parked at the gas pump.
Inside, officers discovered a 5-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy who rolled down the windows to inform them that the teen was unable to drive the truck. Upon exiting, they mentioned that a baby remained inside the vehicle.
RBPD says that when an officer entered the truck, he noticed a handgun on the floorboard between the driver and passenger seats.
Soon after, police found the children’s mother, 36-year-old TorQuita Tashe Griffin, accompanying the truck driver. She admitted to officers that the firearm was hers and that she had “left the children in the truck for around an hour” to get food.
Griffin faces charges including three counts of child abuse, three counts of improper firearm storage, and two counts of child neglect. She is currently detained at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Main Detention Center.
