A Texas mother working as a DoorDash driver was arrested Wednesday, five months after she allegedly left her children alone in the car – and one of them nearly strangled himself to death playing with the car’s moonroof, police said.
Angela Moreno’s 3-year-old son suffered life-threatening injuries when the parent ran inside a Belton restaurant to pick up a delivery order for 10 minutes around 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 10, 2024, according to authorities.
The unsupervised toddler, who was in the car with his 1-year-old brother, climbed up and poked his head out of the moonroof before inadvertently closing the window on his neck by hitting a button on the car ceiling, Belton police said.
Local restaurant staff performed life-saving measures on the unconscious child who wasn’t breathing as the 24-year-old mother watched helplessly. First responders then rushed him to McLane Children’s Hospital, where he was treated and survived.
After investigators conferred with the Bell County District Attorney’s Office, Moreno was charged with injury to a child and taken into custody.
Belton is roughly an hour’s drive from Austin.
