The Milwaukee Police Department remains silent about their investigation into how police didn’t find a child in the backseat of a vehicle Monday night before it was towed away.
A four-year-old girl spent 8 hours in a van until she was found Tuesday morning in the Milwaukee Tow Lot.
While police have yet to release their dash camera and body camera footage of the incident, home surveillance video at 39th and Forest Home captured the whole mishap.
It shows the driver of the minivan waving down a Milwaukee County Transit System bus. An MCTS spokesman said the woman told the bus driver her cousin was passed out and needed help. MCTS said the bus driver noticed a baby on the lap of the woman who was passed out in the passenger seat. The bus driver pulled over and called for medical attention.
Shortly after a woman took the baby to get on the bus, a fire truck and several first responders surrounded the van. Then an ambulance and police arrived, none of whom noticed the four-year-old girl in the back seat.
The video shows an officer taking one final walk around the van shortly after 11:00 p.m. He doesn’t go inside the van to search. Anytime Milwaukee police tow a vehicle after an arrest, their code of conduct says they’re supposed to thoroughly search the vehicle for items of apparent value.
The child remained in the back seat and the tow truck driver took the van to the tow lot. Thankfully, an officer on duty at the lot heard her crying the next morning around 8:30 a.m.
State Sen. Lena Taylor told TODAY’S TMJ4 she’s providing legal counsel to the family of the four-year-old girl who remains in Child Protective Services. The family wants to get her back home.
