A 29-year-old Kinston father, Mecca Muhammad, was arrested over the weekend after police say his two-year-old child was found unsupervised on South Queen Street, near the Lenoir County Courthouse.
According to Major Brandon Turner of the Kinston Police Department, officers responded to a call on Sunday from a passerby who spotted the toddler wandering alone in the street. During the investigation, authorities discovered that Muhammad’s eight-month-old child had also been left alone at home, unattended.
Muhammad now faces charges of child abuse and two counts of exposing a child to fire—a Class 1 misdemeanor applied when children under eight are left without supervision.
Both children have been taken into the care of the Department of Social Services and are now staying with their paternal grandfather. Authorities reported that the whereabouts of the children’s mother remain unknown.
