Doral mother accused of child, animal neglect; cops say son ‘shares his food with the family dog’

DORAL, Fla. — A Doral woman is facing charges after authorities say her hungry 11-year-old son was found wandering the parking garage of their apartment building early Thursday morning trying to find her so he could eat.

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Police said Roxanabel Medina Leon, 31, would leave the boy alone with little to no food in their dirty apartment while she was at her boyfriend’s apartment.

Authorities said the boy told police that not only was he left alone with little food, “he shares his food with the family dog because there is no dog food available in the residence.”

According to the Doral Police Department, a building employee called officers to the building, the name and address of which are redacted from an arrest report, at around 3 a.m., after seeing the boy walking alone in the garage. According to the report, he told the boy to go back to his own apartment and remain there until police arrived.

According to the DPD report, that employee told investigators that the boy had come to the building’s lobby at around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday “and asked him if he had any food or water.”

Police said the employee gave Medina’s son popcorn, Biscoff cookies and water.

According to police, the boy told investigators that he “frequently goes to his mother’s boyfriend’s apartment to obtain food” and that he had gone to the front desk that morning because his mother hadn’t answered the door, saying “the only food available (in the apartment) was expired macaroni and cheese” which he didn’t eat “because he believed it would make him sick.”

He told police that he “often has to wake his mother” because his 4-month-old baby brother is crying and she doesn’t hear him. According to the report, he said he was in the parking garage trying to find his mother’s vehicle “in an effort to find her and obtain food because he was hungry.”

In the report, a Doral police officer described the conditions in the apartment:

Additionally, police said there was “little to no food” inside the unit.

According to the report, the boy told investigators that “there have been occasions when he became so hungry that he ate Gerber baby rice cereal mixed with water because there was no milk available in the apartment and added that the family dog had not eaten regular dog food for approximately three months.”

Authorities said they went to Medina’s boyfriend’s apartment and found her and the 4-month-old there.

According to the report, she claimed she cleaned the apartment “last Tuesday” and said her “son is constantly fed when she either cooks or orders food.”

“She stated that she left her dog food last night and doesn’t know why the dog was found with no food,” the report states.

Police arrested Medina on two felony counts of child neglect and one misdemeanor animal cruelty charge.

As of Friday morning, she was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $5,500 bond.

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