A Houston daycare owner was arrested Friday on five counts of child endangerment after allegedly leaving five children in a hot car in a grocery store parking lot, according to Harris County court records.
Domonique Wilson, 32, is the owner of My Lil Angels daycare, which operates out of her Stone Street home. She is accused of leaving an infant and four other children, ages 1, 2, 6, and 8, in a vehicle while she took her own two children into a Kroger store on Telephone Road around noon.
The temperature was 91 degrees, and a witness reported the children were left alone for about 40 minutes, appearing red-faced and crying in distress.
“There is obviously no excuse. It’s super hot in Houston. I wouldn’t even leave my dog in the car, so I don’t know what she was thinking,” said neighbor Nyleh Peters, per Fox 26.
Wilson, who has operated the daycare for over three and a half years, was arrested and charged with risking injury or death to the children, all clients of her daycare, according to court documents. She is licensed by the state, with her last inspection in April showing no compliance issues, per the Texas Health and Human Services website.
She is currently being held in the Harris County Jail Facility with her bail set at $50,000. Her next court appearance is scheduled for October 15. A public defender for Wilson could not be reached for comment, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is investigating potential abuse or neglect, with findings to be shared with the Health and Human Services Commission, which regulates daycares in Texas, a DFPS spokesperson said. Police reported that the children are doing okay following the incident.
“Since 1990, at least 1,149 children have died in hot cars in the United States and at least another 7,500 survived with varying degrees of injury,” the website Kids and Cars states.
During the past two months, a total of five children in the state of Texas died from being left in a hot car, accounting for 25% of the known hot car deaths around the nation so far this year.