This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Salt Lake City police arrested a woman who allegedly left her child inside a locked car for at least two hours while she purportedly sought drugs at a downtown homeless shelter.
Detectives say that 36-year-old Akilah Mandisa Davis parked her car near 500 West and 300 South about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, leaving her toddler daughter behind. A passerby, returning about a half an hour later, saw the car, its window up, still there with the child sitting in the back seat.
The mother did not return until about 7:10 p.m., police state.
By then, Utah Transit Authority police from the nearby Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub facility had forced entry to the car and removed the child. SLCPD officers also had arrived, waiting for the mother to return.
A probable cause statement alleged that when confronted by police, Davis "admitted to intentionally leaving the child alone in the vehicle ... while she went to the shelter." A subsequent search of the woman turned up "a glass crack pipe with burnt drug residue.
The woman allegedly told officers she got the pipe "while at the shelter," the statement added.
Davis was booked into the Salt Lake County jail on suspicion of third-degree felony child abandonment, as well as misdemeanor counts ranging from possession of drug paraphernalia and providing false information to an officer to automobile insurance violations.
Davis, who court records indicate has past misdemeanor shoplifting and driving without a license convictions, remained behind bars on Thursday in lieu of $1,200 bail.
Her child, uninjured, was taken into protective custody by the Utah Division of Child and Family Services.
Twitter: @remims