The mother of a barefoot 6-year-old boy found wandering around a Queens parking lot abandoned three other kids as well — while out committing a push-in robbery involving pepper-spray and a stun gun, police said Wednesday.
Leshea Harris, 30, allegedly left her children unattended in a Far Rockaway apartment and was charged with four counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Police found out about the 6-year-old after Lidia Rojas, 46, showed up for work at 5:40 a.m. Tuesday and saw him walking aimlessly around in the parking lot of NYC Laundry City Express. on Seagirt Blvd. near the family’s home.
Rojas said the boy didn’t say a word but she brought him inside, gave him water and called police.
The NYPD later released a photo of the child, describing him as about 5, and asked the public’s help in identifying him.
Police said a video canvass showed the boy had walked several blocks to the laundromat and that a tipster helped identify the mother.
By then, Harris and another woman were being arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court for a Monday night push-in robbery at an East New York, Brooklyn, apartment where the tenant was pepper-sprayed, threatened with a stun gun and robbed of about $50 worth of clothing. She was hit with a slew of charges including burglary, robbery, trespass and assault.
After the arraignment, Harris was handed back over to police and charged in Queens with child abandonment. The other children, ranging in age from 4 to 10, were not hurt and are in good health.
The Administration for Children’s Services is working to place the children with a relative or foster family.
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