ATLANTA — A judge granted bond Friday for a mother facing two felonies after a stranger found her young child out late at night with only a diaper on.
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Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes reported neighbors are coming together to help the other kids in the house.
The mother, Lakisha Holmes, has a total of four children, and we’ve seen neighbors feeding some kids at the house and checking on them after.
The man who calls himself the 3-year-old’s stepfather, Andre Roundtree, waived his first appearance hearing Friday, so he never had a chance to get a bond.
“She needs help. She doesn’t need to be in jail,” said Antonio Gates, a neighbor.
Gates lives in the southeast Atlanta community near Belfort Road where police are investigating a mother and stepfather for felony child cruelty and reckless conduct.
He said that Holmes has been struggling since she lost her mother.
It started when their 3-year-old boy wandered off from his home late Wednesday. A stranger said the child looked malnourished and called police.
A judge told Channel 2 we couldn’t show Lakisha Holmes’s face during the hearing. The mother was given a total bond of $50,000.
Gates said he and other community are trying to raise the money to get her out.
“Instead of locking people up, they need to find out what’s going on,’ he said. “That’s what investigators are for. And if they would’ve investigated, they would’ve seen she needed help instead of going to jail.”
Neighbors who spoke off camera said they will continue to care for the children still living in the home. They said they understood that police have to do their jobs but hope for a long-term solution for the family.
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