League City police really want to talk to anyone who may have seen a young boy walking alongside the Gulf Freeway around 8:30pm Monday. Officers arrested his mom after one person called it in, but they believe many more people may have seen him.
"The freeway isn't the time to teach your child a lesson. The freeway is a dangerous place. This particular stretch of 45 has had several fatalities in the past month," said Officer Reagan Pena with the League City Police Department.
Police tell Eyewitness News 34-year-old Angela Graciela Garcia was arguing with her child when she forced him to get out of her 2013 Audi and start walking. The boy walked about 10 minutes in the dark before a passerby saw him and called police.
"She had driven away briefly but she was about 250 feet, but there was an incline so he actually had no idea if she had driven away," Pena said.
Garcia has been charged with abandoning or endangering a child and her bond set at $7,500. The boy and a sibling, who was in the Audi at the time, have been released to their father.
But police want to hear from more witnesses who saw the boy walking along the busy Gulf Freeway Monday night.
"A 10-year-old is not savvy enough to negotiate being on a major freeway, and so he truly was in danger," Pena said.
We talked to CPS, and was told they plan to follow up with the father in the coming days. The detective in the case plans to interview the children and the mom on Wednesday, but witness accounts may help them piece together exactly how long the boy was on the freeway.
If you think you saw him, you're urged to call Detective Grant at League City police.
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