Liberty police say mom left children in car parked outside Walmart

Poorsha Cathey

A Youngstown mom is charged with child endangering after police say she left two young children by themselves in an unlocked car for nearly 40 minutes on Tuesday evening while she shopped at the Liberty Walmart.

Police said when they were dispatched to the parking lot on Belmont Avenue at around 7 p.m., a caller told a dispatcher that two boys had already been alone in the car for twenty minutes.

An officer said a six-year-old boy was sleeping in the back seat while a one-year-old boy was crawling around the console of the car. The keys were in the ignition, the car was unlocked, and the radio was on according to the police report.

The report says the mother, 21-year-old Poorsha Cathey of Youngstown, came back to the car with a cart full of groceries about 38 minutes after police were called.

According to the report, Cathey exhibited no sense of urgency to return to the car, telling the officer that she needed groceries and had no one to watch her children.

The children were turned over to the care of a relative.

Cathey pleaded not guilty to child endangering during a video arraignment in Girard Municipal Court.

Bail was set at $2,500.