SUNNY ISLES BEACH, Fla. — Newly released video shows the moment officers located a 6-year-old boy who police say had been left by himself at a Sunny Isles Beach park for nearly an hour.
Officers responded to Town Center Park just before 9 p.m. on a recent Saturday after a witness flagged them down about a young child with no adult in sight. According to the arrest affidavit, the boy approached the witness and said he was alone and scared because his mother had left him. He also told the man he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast.
The witness told police he believed the child had been sitting alone at the playground for close to an hour before officers arrived.
When officers spoke with the boy directly, he told them his mother had left him at the park to go be with a friend and get food. He also said he was frightened and did not want to leave with anyone he didn’t know.
Police searched the area but were unable to immediately locate the boy’s mother, identified as 41-year-old Elena Sexton of Corpus Christi, Texas. Officers eventually spotted her walking back toward the park and took her into custody on the spot.
In her statement to police, Sexton said she had parked at a nearby shopping plaza and walked back to grab some toys when she ran into a friend, who invited her to sit down and eat. She said she agreed — leaving her son behind at the park in the meantime.
Sexton was booked at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami-Dade County and formally charged with child neglect without great bodily harm. She has since appeared before a judge, who found probable cause for the arrest and set her bond at $2,500.
The Florida Department of Children and Families was notified following the incident. The boy is now staying with a relative while the case moves forward.
This story has been updated with the latest court information.
