Erica Suzanna Cook (Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office)
A 34-year-old mother of three from Alabama was arrested last week after she allegedly tricked her two oldest children into getting out of their car outside of an emergency room in Florida, then drove away as they chased after the vehicle.
Erica Suzanna Cook was taken into custody on Friday and charged with two counts of child neglect — unlawful desertion of a child, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Pensacola, Florida, ABC affiliate WEAR, Cook, of Dothan, Alabama, was driving in Destin, Florida, with her three children on the evening of Aug. 14. Destin is about 55 miles south of Florida’s northern border with Alabama.
Authorities did not give the ages of the children other than to say that the youngest child was an infant.
One of the children told a deputy with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office that at around 10:30 p.m., his mother told him to remove the infant from the car seat and change the baby’s diaper while the car was still in motion, authorities said in a news release. The child allegedly refused to perform the dangerous — and unlawful — act.
That’s about when Cook allegedly told her two older children that she needed their help to get money for gas. Cook then pulled her car into the parking lot of HCA Florida Destin Emergency, stopped, and told the two older kids to go inside and try to find gas money, the affidavit states.
The kids got out of the car, but as they reached the front door to the emergency room, Cook allegedly sped away, taking the infant with her as she left.
A security guard told investigators he saw the two children as they realized their mother was leaving them and said both kids started running after the car. The security guard then said he brought the kids into the facility, where a nurse took them into one of the rooms.
Authorities said Cook returned to the hospital a short while later and asked the security guard if he had seen her two children. When the guard told Cook that the kids were with the nurse, she allegedly said she had to go back outside and get the infant from the car. But she allegedly drove away.
Cook did not return to the hospital. Hospital staff and deputies made multiple attempts to contact Cook, but all were unsuccessful, the affidavit said. A warrant for her arrest was then issued.
Cook was held at the Okaloosa County Jail from Friday until Wednesday, when she was released after posting $2,000 bond. The status of her three children was not immediately available.
Cook is scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial conference on Dec. 14.
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