Children Crying In Car Lead To DUI Charges For Woman: St. Pete Police

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — After a witness noticed children crying and calling for help from the backseat of a car traveling through St. Petersburg, a 39-year-old woman was arrested and faces multiple charges, according to arrest records.

When officers pulled over Annie Gay Shockley Saturday just before 11 a.m. at 12th Avenue S. and 16th Street S., she told them she was taking the three children in her car fishing.

The children were “asking for help while visibly in distress,” according to an arrest affidavit from St. Petersburg police.

One of the children told police that she was “in fear of her mother and feels she is using alcohol,” one police report reads.

Police noted that Gay “displayed several signs of impairment to include bloodshot watery eyes, slurred speech, odor of alcoholic beverage from breathe (sic) and swaying,” according to the affidavit. She also refused a field sobriety and breathalyzer test.

As she was taken into custody, she bit an officer on the upper left arm, police said.

Gay was convicted of drunken driving in February and is only allowed to be driving for business purposes, records show.

Her charges from Saturday include driving under the influence, violation of driver’s license restrictions, four counts of neglect of a child without great bodily harm, refusal to submit to testing and battery on a law enforcement officer, according to arrest affidavits.