CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) -
Police said the mother of an infant who was left with a man in Charlotte overnight has been charged with misdemeanor child abuse. According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, the mother and the 911 caller have conflicting stories about what happened.
“The baby was not abandoned, it was at my uncle’s house,” said Yakesha Patterson, the mother of the child. “I told him I was trying to contact him and he told me his phone was messed, up so I don’t know how I would have contacted him.”
The mother of the child is adamant that the man she left the child with overnight was her uncle. However, the child's grandmother, the property manager, and neighbors say that is not true.
“There are no uncles. I have no brothers - well, I have a stepbrother,” said Shadonna Richardson, the child's grandmother. "We do not have any family that live over here."
The man in question reportedly called police just before 7 a.m. from the 1600 block of Remount Road regarding an abandoned infant.
The man said he met a woman around 9 p.m. Thursday while walking through the Lakewood Manor complex on Watson Drive and that she asked him to watch the baby, but never returned.
“He told me that some strange woman, who he had never seen before, left her little girl. He woke up in the morning still hung over and surprised the kid was still there. The mother never came back,” said Oquesha Crawford, the neighbor of the man that had the baby.
Crawford said hearing about the incident made her angry.
“I am very angry because I am a mom myself, and I say I don’t care because I am bringing all my kids with me no matter what. It is not their responsibility - it is yours,” she said.
Richardson says she has tried for months to get her daughter the help she needs, as she believes her daughter is going down the wrong path.
“I am trying to get help now. She is married, I have no assistance on that,” said Richardson. “We have kids involved here and that is why I have been trying to get so involved. All I want is for my daughter to get treatment and become the person that she was.”
CMPD said just before 4:30 p.m. that Patterson had been charged and that the child was placed in DSS custody.
Police and the Department of Social Services are investigating.