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A homeless man helped rescue a 6-year-old boy who was found wandering alone on the streets of Miami late at night, leading to the arrest of the child’s mother.
Arnett Johnson, who has been living on a bench in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood for the past six months after being released from prison, said he spotted the child around 11 p.m. on April 8 at the intersection of Northwest 7th Avenue and 17th Street. He told WPLG that he immediately became concerned after seeing the boy alone.
“I’m looking around for the parent, but I looked and don’t see nobody, you know what I’m saying? So, what is this kid doing out here at night?” Johnson told the outlet.
Johnson called the police and stayed with the boy until they arrived. The child, who has a learning disability, told officials, “Mommy dropped me off and left me,” according to an arrest report obtained by CBS News.
Miami Police spokesman Officer Mike Vega said the intersection where the boy was found has heavy traffic and that the child could have been seriously injured or taken by a predator if the Good Samaritan had not intervened, according to the outlet.
As far as Johnson sees it: “It’s dangerous every day out here. Anyone would have done the same thing I did, you know?” he told WPLG.
Police later identified the child’s mother as Annie Rivera, 30. A Miami-Dade School Board police officer later recognized the missing boy from a flyer and identified his mother using the information, according to the report. The child’s school called police Thursday morning, prompting them to locate Rivera at a friend’s residence. A witness, Stephanie, told police that Rivera and her children had been living with her in Miami for several months.
Stephanie, who did not want to provide her last name, told NBC 6 South Florida that she saw Rivera sleeping on Thursday morning but did not see the boy. She said she assumed Rivera had left him with his godmother, as she had done at times in the past.
Officers also spoke with Rivera, who claimed that she did not know her son was missing for 12 hours. She was subsequently arrested and charged with child neglect with great bodily harm.
Stephanie defended Rivera during an interview with the outlet, saying, "She tries her best to be the best mom, and she works and tries to do what she needs to do.”
Rivera appeared in Miami-Dade County bond court Friday, where she cried before the judge. The court set her bond at $2,500, and she has since paid it.
The child has since been removed from Rivera’s custody and is now in the care of the Florida Department of Children and Families, pending a shelter hearing.
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Mindy Glazer imposed strict conditions on Rivera’s contact with her son, ordering that she have no unsupervised interaction with him unless otherwise directed by dependency court. Any contact she does have must be supervised, and she is prohibited from acting in any violent or threatening manner toward the child.
In addition to the custody restrictions, the court also placed several broader conditions on her behavior. Rivera was ordered not to engage in any criminal activity, possess illegal drugs, or use, purchase, or possess any firearms, weapons or ammunition. She was also required to surrender any firearms or concealed weapons she may have in her possession.
"Right now, you have got to get it together," Glazer told Rivera, CBS News reported. "There was inadequate supervision, and there is probable cause, and there are services for you, and you are likely to use them.”
