A Florida woman has been arrested and charged with child neglect and arson after her vehicle was immersed in flames while her children were inside. According to police, she left her children behind to shoplift at a local mall.
A police report states that 24-year-old Alicia Moore drove to Dillard’s department store at Oviedo Mall and left her children in the car at the parking lot. Witnesses say they saw Moore accompanied by a man who both went shoplifting at Dillard’s. An hour later, she saw her car caught on fire, so she left the merchandise behind and fled the store.
Mall bystanders rescued the children as they tried to escape the vehicle. The children were rushed to a local hospital where one was treated for first-degree burns to her face and ears, Oviedo Police Department said.
It is unclear what caused the fire, but police say the children could have dodged potentially being burned to death had the suspect not been neglectful. In addition to child neglect, the suspect was charged with arson because “she was allegedly committing a felony,” according to an NBC Miami report.
The public defender’s office is representing Moore, who is behind held on $40,000 bail.
The public defender filed a motion requesting that the suspect be released without bail or have the bail amount reduced “to a reasonable and affordable amount.”
The news comes just three days after Shine My Crown reported about another case of child neglect in which a Florida woman was arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child after she left her infant in a hot car to attend church, officials at Palm Bay Police said.
On Thursday, officers responded to a call at the Mount of Olives Evangelical Church, located 6165 Babcock Street in Palm Bay after it was discovered that an 11-month-old child was unresponsive in a car.
Upon arrival, it was found that the infant had been left in the vehicle for roughly three hours while the parents went to a church nearby.
Detectives later found that the child’s mother, Bulaine Molme, was late to arrive at the service she was scheduled to officiate. She told authorities she thought her child was brought inside the place of worship by a member of the church.
When church service was over, Molme realized that her child was not inside the church. She then rushed to her vehicle and found her child unresponsive. She then called the police who performed CPR until rescue personnel arrived.
The child was then rushed to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
