[StBernard] After loaded handguns left alone with 6 children in vehicle, parents arrested

[Westley Annis]

After loaded handguns left alone with 6 children in vehicle, parents
arrested
Print By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on April 04, 2013 at 6:20 PM, updated April 04, 2013 at 6:30 PM

A couple was booked with child desertion in Chalmette this week after
leaving two loaded handguns in a vehicle with their six children. The couple
had left their children, ages 5 months to 7 years old, in the car as they
shopped for about 20 minutes in a Chalmette store, St. Bernard Parish
Sheriff Jimmy Pohlmann said.

Shelve Smith, 27, and Regina Lee, 24, who said they didn't have a permanent
address, left one gun between the driver's seat and the console and the
other loaded gun between the passenger's seat and the console, according to
the Sheriff's Office. The incident occurred in the mid-afternoon on Monday,
April 1, and the couple has since been released on a bond from the St.
Bernard Parish Prison.

"This could have easily ended in a tragedy,'' Pohlmann said. "To leave two
loaded guns with your very young children in a parked car is the height of
idiocy. Just leaving the kids alone, period, in a store parking lot at their
ages was criminally negligent.''

A passerby noticed the children alone in the vehicle and notified a
sheriff's deputy who was at the store working an off-duty security detail,
Pohlmann said. The children were released to a relative after their parents
were arrested.

The couple allegedly told deputies that they currently are homeless and
that's why they don't have a permanent address.

Pohlmann said several adults are arrested each year for leaving children
alone in vehicles while they shop.