San Antonio school officer arrested for leaving 5-year-old alone for hours

A former Southwest ISD police officer was arrested after allegedly abandoning a 5-year-old boy alone in a hallway. She resigned following the arrest.

Former Southwest ISD officer charged with child endangerment in San Antonio

Google News MT — Crime (en) reports that a former Southwest Independent School District police officer was taken into custody on Sunday after allegedly leaving a five-year-old child alone for several hours on San Antonio's Southeast Side.

San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) units responded at 3:45 a.m. to the 8200 block of Inner Circle Drive, following a report of a child crying in a hallway. Officers found a five-year-old boy who said he had been left alone for an unknown period of time. The child was not injured.

The suspect, identified in the preliminary report as Melanie Miriam Gonzales, 23, returned to the location several hours later and was arrested by SAPD. She faces a charge of abandoning or endangering a child without intent to return, a state jail felony, according to Bexar County court records.

Gonzales was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on Monday and posted a $10,000 bond, securing her release the same day.

KSAT subsequently confirmed her employment with the district. "We can confirm that she was employed as a School Resource Officer with the Southwest ISD Police Department for approximately two years," a district spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The spokesperson added that Gonzales resigned following her arrest. The district also clarified that the incident did not occur on school property and did not involve any Southwest ISD student.

Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)