CHINS

CHINS: CHild In Need of Services/Supervision

Driving along the highway, a citizen spots a little nine year old boy walking on the shoulder alone. He stopped and got the boy into his car.

Luckily for the child it wasn't Jeffrey Dahmer, but a legitimately good samaritan. He volunteers with Fire/EMS and works with the homeless for a living. He realized how fantastically dangerous it was for the child to be on the highway and knew immediate intervention was required, not just a call to 911 as he passed by.

The boy knew enough of the area to direct him to the apartment complex he lives in. He was even able to point out his apartment, but nobody was home. The citizen called 911.

The child said he was with his babysitter this morning and she fell asleep, so he left. He walked across the city to his father's house and got there mid-day. Nobody was there so he started walking back. It was evening now and fully dark so he'd been hiking all day long and had nothing to eat either. I let the citizen who found him go on about his business with a "Thank you!"

The neighborhood security arrived and confirmed the child's mother lived in that apartment. An advertising flyer on the door indicated to them however, that nobody has been in or out for at least four days.

We have no reports of a missing or runaway nine year old.

I need to take the child to the department and notify Child Protective Services (CPS.) I decide to stop at Wendy's on the way there and get the child some food. We pick up a chicken nugget kid's meal and head on.

We've checked for reports involving the child's family and located another possible address. An officer who works that area stops by the house and knocks on the door. He asks the man who answers if he has a nine year old son. The man confirms he does but says his son is playing in his room upstairs. The officer asks him to check on the boy and make sure. It was then discovered, finally, that the child had snuck out earlier in the day. I detoured my trip to the department and took the child home.

It turns out his mother's in jail and that's why nobody has been to the apartment for so long. The child missed her and doesn't know she's locked up. There's a back door he's able to sneak out of without being caught. He set off across the city to find her. It's different than the story he told me, but my concern is how many hours does it take for a nine year old to be gone before anyone notices? There didn't seem to be any imminent danger to the child now, so I'm letting the Youth Bureau and CPS follow up to make sure it doesn't happen again. Appropriate charges will be filed as well.

I then responded to a report of a pedestrian struck. On the same highway the boy was found walking on.

The Roanoke Times, Roanoke.com

Pedestrian crossing I-581 hit four times, dies

By Amanda Codispoti

An Amherst man died Sunday night after he was hit while trying to walk across Interstate 581, Virginia State Police said.

Bobby Junior Braxton, 62, was crossing the southbound lanes just south of Peters Creek Road about 6:30 p.m. when he was hit by a tractor-trailer, said Sgt. Rob Carpentieri.

Three other vehicles, an SUV, a van and a pickup truck, also hit Braxton. He was pronounced dead at the scene, Carpentieri said.

Police are investigating why Braxton was walking on the interstate.

Thankfully it was State Police territory so they responded to work it. We assisted with traffic control. It was a grizzly scene, and not something I will describe in any detail here. There were actually people stopping though and taking pictures with their cell phones. We covered up the body and when we needed to take our own scene photos I helped hold up the sheets to prevent the ghouls from getting anything worth putting on YouTube. None of us enjoy this kind of thing, the images haunt you. I can't imagine stalking this kind of scene on purpose for souvenirs.