A 7-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy were found running down a North Miami street alone, hungry and unable to get back into their apartment, before officers discovered their mothers unconscious on a living-room sofa. Latoya Garland, 40, and Mikequisha Gordan, 36, now face child abuse charges after the children were locked outside for hours near Northeast Seventh Avenue and Northeast 132nd Street.
A School Officer Spots Kids Running Alone
According to Local 10 News, a Miami-Dade County Public Schools officer spotted the two children running down the street alone Wednesday evening. A neighbor had already seen the children playing around 5:45 p.m., and the school district officer responded to the intersection at approximately 6:29 p.m. that same evening. The Miami-Dade Schools Police Department, which employs nearly 200 sworn officers with full arrest powers, routinely patrols school zones and surrounding neighborhoods under Florida's safe school officer mandate established under state law.
Investigators say the children had met their mothers at an apartment in the 600 block of Northeast 133rd Street, but Garland and Gordan had locked the apartment door and forced the children outside to play. The children knocked on the door several times after growing tired of playing, but no one answered. Hungry, they walked to a nearby Publix at 12855 NE Sixth Avenue but were unable to get food there before attempting to walk back to the apartment, the report states.
Officers Find Both Women Unconscious
When officers went to the apartment at approximately 6:48 p.m., they got no response despite repeated attempts to make contact, and a neighbor who called out to the women also got no answer. Officers told Local 10 they were concerned the occupants inside could be experiencing a medical emergency, especially after they heard a phone ringing inside the apartment with no one picking up. A property employee was called to the scene and let officers inside.
Once inside, police found Garland and Gordan unconscious on a living-room sofa. Per the same account, the women were breathing and had a pulse but were sluggish to respond to stimuli, and police reported that both appeared impaired by an unknown substance. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue determined both women were stable. Arrest reports did not identify what substance the women had consumed, the outlet noted, and one of the women began vomiting in the back of a marked patrol vehicle at around 8:20 p.m.
Charges and Custody Status
Garland and Gordan were transported to the North Miami Police Department before being taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, a 1,300-bed facility operated by Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation that serves as the county's primary intake site for pre-trial detainees. Both women were charged with child abuse with no great bodily harm and remained behind bars as of Thursday afternoon, with online jail records listing their bonds as still to be set.
Under Florida Statute § 827.03, child abuse without great bodily harm is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in state prison, five years of probation, and a fine of up to $5,000. Florida law distinguishes that charge from aggravated child abuse involving great bodily harm, which can carry up to 30 years in prison.
What Happens Next for the Children
When parents or primary caregivers are arrested or incapacitated, the Florida Department of Children and Families initiates a child protective investigation to evaluate safety threats and coordinate emergency placement or shelter care. State law under Florida Statute § 39.201 also requires anyone who suspects child abuse or neglect to report it to the Florida Abuse Hotline, which operates around the clock. It remains unclear where the two children are currently living as the investigation continues.
The arrests come amid a string of similar cases across North Miami in recent months. Hoodline reported on a 6-year-old boy found wandering alone near a Family Dollar in North Miami just weeks earlier, resulting in felony charges against his stepfather under the same state statute. North Miami, a city of roughly 60,964 residents spread across 10 square miles in northern Miami-Dade County, has seen a series of child welfare cases surface in local law enforcement reports this year.
