Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Natasha Shamar Slater, 33, was arrested yesterday morning and charged with four counts of child neglect after a child was found at an intersection wearing only a hoodie and a wet diaper, with temperatures in the upper 30s.
At about 8:16 a.m. on January 3, two witnesses reported finding a small child at the intersection of SW 8th Avenue and SW 10th Street, wearing only a hoodie, a soaked diaper, and no shoes, socks, hat, or gloves.
Gainesville Police Department officers also reportedly found three other children (their ages were redacted), alone in an apartment; the two older children reportedly told an officer that Slater had left them in charge of the younger children while she went to work for a meeting.
One child reportedly said that they stay at the apartment at least three days a week and sometimes stay at a hotel.
The arresting officer reported that there was a large amount of trash piled throughout the apartment, the toilets were filled with feces and appeared to be inoperable, feces were smeared on walls and on some of the beds, the refrigerator contained animal droppings and moldy food and appeared to be broken, and “numerous” insects were seen in the apartment. The officer concluded that the apartment “did not appear to be suitable for anyone to reside in, especially children,” and he wrote that a Department of Children and Families worker shared that conclusion.