AMSTERDAM, N.Y. -- A two-year-old girl has been sent to live with relatives, after police say the toddler's mother left her home alone for several hours, and went grocery shopping.
Emily Mawyin, 29, was charged early Tuesday with misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child, after neighbors found her two-year-old daughter wandering through the Colonial Square Apartments in Amsterdam on Monday afternoon. According to police, the neighbors held the child in their care and eventually transported her to the police station.
Mawyin pleaded not guilty in Amsterdam City Court on Tuesday. Police said she was generally cooperative during their investigation.
"She just said she had errands to run, and the child was sleeping, and she thought that it would be okay," said Detective Sergeant Thomas Hennessy. "To leave a two-year-old alone while you go run errands, that constitutes a risk. Route 67 is there, it's a major highway. Across the street there are woods, fortunately the child didn't wander off into there."
Neighbors in the apartment complex were shocked, but not surprised by the arrest.
"I never see her, but I see the kids," said Mark Williams, who lives a few doors down from Mawyin. ""That's bananas. Like, what were you thinking? What was so important for you, to leave a two-year-old by herself?"
Steve Lair, who lives in an adjoining building, said he and some friends tried to help the child.
"We were giving her shoes, a cracker, something like that," he said, "trying to figure out: how is this nobody's responsibility?"
One neighbor with a car seat drove the child to police, and stayed to play with the girl while police investigated. Hennessy said it took investigators more than two hours Monday to identify the girl and find her mother, primarily because the toddler is too young to speak and carries no identification.
Emily Mawyin is due back in Amsterdam City Court on September 22. Child Protective Services continues to investigate her case.