The child's belongings were thrown out of the car by her mother and her boyfriend, who then drove off even as the girl frantically ran behind them.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on November 30, 2021. It has since been updated.
Children are a blessing to their parents, but when parents reject this blessing, it can be a very painful experience for the child. If a parent decides that they are not the best person to raise their child and chooses to give them up, it is understandable, as the decision taken is meant to be in the best interest of the child. There are, however, people who selfishly abandon their children in dangerous situations. For those children, it might be better to not be raised by those parents at all.
The way a 6-year-old girl was dumped on a busy intersection by her mother and boyfriend in Queens, New York shows that not everyone should become parents. Emma, 6, who did not know her last name nor address was found by a good samaritan, who was left aghast at what the child's parents did. Mishka Peart, 30, usually didn't go to work out in the morning but on May 18 she had decided to go out for exercise. What happened next was heartbreaking.
She saw a little girl on a busy intersection in Laurelton, Queens, New York, and pulled up. The girl had bags in her hands that had her clothes but she dropped them as she ran over to speak to Mishka, who motioned for her to get her clothes. "Then, she ran to the sidewalk, and she kept looking at me," she said, as per NY Daily News. "I asked her where she was going and she said, 'I don’t know.' I said, 'Where are your parents?'"
A Long Island mom and her boyfriend tossed her 6-year-old daughter’s things out a car window before driving off, abandoning her, lawyers said.
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) May 20, 2020
The man told the girl's father to come find her because she was “crying like a little b----,” a complaint said.https://t.co/4ZoE3p5dEG
"I don’t know," the girl answered. "They drove off and left me." "I said ‘They left you? What does that mean?'" said Mishka.
Mishka then drove the girl to Montbellier Park, where school safety agents were present, and told them what happened. The safety agents called police officers from the 105th Precinct, and that led to an investigation.
It was found that Emma's mom, Patrice Chambers, 29, and Chambers’ boyfriend, Mark Pamphile, 28, residents of Central Islip in Suffolk County, left the little girl at the intersection at around 11.30 a.m. Surveillance video showed that they threw her things out of the car window while she got out of the car. Emma was seen "running in the street... attempting to pick up the items in the street," heartbreaking court papers reveal, according to NY Daily News.
Truly, some people should NEVER have kids.
— theGrio.com (@theGrio) May 21, 2020
Thankfully, Mishka Peart was a hero enough to help the little girl. Shoutout to you Ms. Peart! https://t.co/5jj0Gb3sR7
Before driving off, they called Emma's father, Kermit Watson, and left a horrible voicemail, prosecutors charge. "You better come get your daughter," Mark was heard saying, according to court papers. "Your daughter is in the street not sleeping nowhere. She is crying like a little b----," he added. A crying child could be heard in the background on the voicemail, prosecutors added.
The couple also claimed that Patrice showed up at Kermit's doorstep with Emma but he refused to take her in. However, it was proved that they lied. Cops had questioned him and he said, "Are you crazy? That never happened." Footage from Kermit's home showed that Patrice didn't go to his home at all. The girl's father also said that he's barely seen her since he broke up with Patrice four years ago.
Mishka Peart can't fathom why the parents of a 6-year-old girl abandoned her on a Queens street with her clothing in bags.
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) May 20, 2020
“How does this happen?" said Peart, who found the girl and brought her to the authorities.
The parents were arrested. https://t.co/EcQiMskZLH
Patrice later owned up that she left her daughter at the intersection since she was "frustrated." The couple was arrested and charged with child endangerment. Before they were released, Mark told the court something harsh.
"This kid is her kid," he told cops, according to court papers. "This kid is not my kid, not my problem, not my responsibility." He had convinced the mother-of-three to abandon all her children except the one she had with him.
Dear Mishka Peart,
— Kathryn (@katsbreez) May 21, 2020
Thank you for saving this little girl. I hope the relatives she is placed with care for her as much as you did in this moment.❤ https://t.co/U9YETJATo1
Mark's mother, who has been a foster parent to many children, revealed something even more heartbreaking. "The mother said 'OK, let’s drop the baby there.' And then Mark said 'You sure?' And then she said ‘Yes’ or something. That’s the part we don’t understand," said Mark's mom, who doesn't want to be named.
She said that she would take in Emma if her relatives don't, but they have. "I want to help her if I can," she said of Emma. "This is a safe house. Many pass through here and don’t want to leave."
Meanwhile, Mishka, Emma's rescuer, said that she was glad that it was her who found her and nobody else. "Anyone else could have picked her up. She could have been abused. She could have been killed," she told CBS New York. "I can’t imagine someone could do that to a child, let alone their own child."
"I’m just happy that I’m the one who pulled up. When the detectives told me that it was within seconds of her being thrown out of the car, I was like — I was put there. I was meant to be there," she said.
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