Inset: Lovenia Brooks (Brevard County Sheriff's Office). Background: News footage of the Walmart in Melbourne, Fla., where Brooks allegedly left her kids in a hot car (WESH).
A Florida woman was arrested after police said she left her two young children in a hot car while she went inside a Walmart to pick up PediaSure.
Lovenia Brooks, 33, was charged with two counts of child neglect after police found her two children, one of them an infant, by themselves in her Mitsubishi SUV while she ran an errand in Walmart on July 11. According to an arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, the red Mitsubishi was allegedly parked in the fire lane outside the store, and a bystander called police after seeing the children by themselves.
Police said the bystander stayed by the SUV, which was not running and had the windows rolled down. According to the affidavit, the baby was "actively upset and crying," and he saw Brooks "quickly exiting the store" and getting back into her SUV nine minutes after he found the children.
After Brooks got back to her SUV, the bystander told the responding Melbourne Police Department officer that he saw her drive away "recklessly" and almost get into a collision.
A traffic officer, along with the first officer, quickly caught up to Brooks' red Mitsubishi and pulled her over for a traffic stop. Both officers saw the children in the back seat, "one improperly buckled in a rear-facing car seat and the other juvenile in the back seat unsecured," according to the affidavit.
When the officers asked Brooks about leaving her children alone, she said she was "just quickly running inside" to get PediaSure for one of her kids. Police asked her why she did not take her children inside the store with her, and she responded that "she should have and that she was just trying to get one thing done."
Surveillance video determined that Brooks left the children alone outside the Walmart for nine minutes before she returned to her SUV. Police noted in their report that the air temperature reached 96.6 degrees Fahrenheit in Melbourne on July 11 and a heat advisory was in effect while Brooks ran her errand.
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.