Woman charged with leaving 2 boys alone in freezing car with loaded gun in Chicago suburb
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Joliet woman has been arrested after police said she left her two children alone in an unheated car for 45 minutes in the extreme cold last week, with a loaded handgun under the front seat.
Kadesha Clark, 29, has been charged with two counts of endangering the life of a child and one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
Around 5:10 p.m. on Friday, Joliet police officers responded to the parking lot of the Target store at 2701 Plainfield Rd. for a report of a child left alone in a Nissan Sentra.
When officers arrived, they saw a 2-year-old boy in the front seat of the Nissan with the window down. An 8-year-old boy was lying on the floorboard of the rear seat.
The car was not running, and no adults were with the children. At the time, the temperature was about 9 degrees, and the windchill was approximately -10 degrees, police said.
Officers took protective custody of both children and placed them in a squad car to get warm.
About 15 minutes later, the boys' mother, Kadesha Clark, walked up to the Nissan with merchandise she had bought at Target. Officers learned the boys had been left alone in the car for about 45 minutes, and Clark said she believed she had left the car running.
One of the boys told police there might be gun a under the driver's seat, and after their mother consented to a search of the car, police found a loaded handgun.
Police determined Clark did not have a Firearm Owners Identification card or a concealed carry license.
Officers contacted the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and the children were placed in the care of relatives.