Couple Accused of Leaving Baby Locked in Car Outside Burnsville Store

A Plymouth couple has been charged with child neglect and child endangerment after police say they left a 20-month-old baby locked in a car in Burnsville last December without a coat or shoes.

Mariam Abumayaheh, 27, and Ismail Hashem Alqawasmi, 38, are charged with felony child neglect, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

They are also charged with two gross misdemeanors: child endangerment and unreasonable restraint of a child, each of which has a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $3,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaints, a woman called Burnsville police last Dec. 19 to report that a child had been left in a vehicle parked outside a store for about an hour.

The woman told police that she saw the child standing up behind the front seat on the driver’s side of the car. When she left the store about 45 minutes later, she said, the child was in the front seat, standing behind the steering wheel, “crying uncontrollably.”

The outside temperature at the time was 22 degrees, with a 10-degree wind chill, according to police.

Officers found Abumayaheh and Alqawasmi outside the car and asked whether they had left the child inside.

Abumayaheh initially told police that she had been in the store for about 10 minutes, but later said she and Alqawasmi had been inside for 45 minutes, according to the complaint. She said the child was sleeping when they arrived at the store, and she didn’t want to bring the child inside.

Abumayaheh told police that the child had been wearing a coat and sweatpants and had been covered by two blankets when she got out of the car. She said the ignition was turned off and the doors were locked.

Abumayaheh admitted that the child was able to walk and could have gotten out of the car safety seat, the complaint says.