MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – A neighbor’s call about a crying 3-year-old boy found wandering the hallway of a Miami Gardens apartment building in the wee hours of Monday morning led officers to discover that he and his little sister were living in squalor, according to police.
Their 23-year-old father is now facing two child neglect charges.
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An arrest report from the Miami Gardens Police Department states that officers responded to a building in the Oak Enclave complex, located in the 2300 block of Northwest 167th Street, at around 3:30 a.m. after the neighbor reported the distraught toddler looking for his mother.
The report states that officers found the boy’s fifth-floor apartment door open and, as they tried to find an adult, discovered a crying 1-year-old girl alone in a bedroom.
Police said they also discovered that the children were living in filth.
Officers said there was “garbage on the floor, uneaten food, open food boxes and dirty dishes covering the kitchen countertop, in the sink and on the stove.”
“Also, on the floor in the kitchen area by the counter were dirty/soiled diapers and fecal matter,” the investigating MGPD officer wrote. “There were multiple soiled diapers on the floor. In one bedroom (master) there were fast food boxes, empty cups and garbage. The floor was unsanitary (sticky, slippery, food, debris, dirty clothing, and fecal matter on it.)”
Authorities said they also contacted the Florida Department of Children and Families after making the discovery.
Police said the child’s mother — identified in the report as an “involved other” — left for work at around 10 p.m. and left the child in the care of their father, Tyree Genesis Womble, whom she had recently split up with.
According to the report, both parents went to MGPD headquarters at around 4 p.m. and police arrested Womble and took him to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
Miami-Dade jail records show he was being held in TGK with a bond listed as “to be set.”