A 41-year-old attorney in Florida is facing felony charges for allegedly leaving two young children — ages 3 and 7 — alone on a beach, during which time the younger child was found wading around waist-deep in the ocean.
Patricia Anne Bronson was taken into custody last weekend and charged with two counts of neglect of a child without resulting in great bodily harm, a third-degree felony, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to a report from the Tampa Bay Times, a witness on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 7, saw Bronson pull up at Upham Beach and let the two little girls out of her car. She then reportedly drove away, leaving both children to fend for themselves just feet from the water.
In a probable cause affidavit obtained by the Times, a female witness told police that she eventually lost sight of the 3-year-old and decided to approach the 7-year-old, asking if she knew where her younger sister had gone. The 7-year-old reportedly responded by simply pointing at the water, where the witness could see the girl all by herself in water that was “waist deep.”
The witness told police that she ran over to get the girl from the water, but the child repeatedly ran away from her, but said she was eventually able to convince the 3-year-old to remain with her and the 7-year-old until deputies with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department arrived on the scene, per the Times report.
