Cops: Parents refused to let sunburnt child inside
DAYTONA BEACH SHORES, Fla. --An Alabama couple on vacation at a Florida hotel was arrested for child neglect after staff called police and reported they wouldn't let their sunburnt child inside, reports CBS affiliate WKMG.
The couple's arrest Thursday afternoon at the Hawaiian Inn in Daytona Beach Shores was captured on one officer's body camera on video obtained by the station. Staff told police Rebecca El-Rhazouani and Mounir El-Rhazouani were drinking, and said they had refused to let their five-year-old come in out of the sun, reports the station.
They are reportedly the foster parents of two children, the five-year-old and a two-year-old.
"The child wanted to get out of the sun so bad that it was literally running to that door over there, screaming, trying to get into the door, and the father would not take the child inside," a hotel security officer told police on the video.
When police responded to the hotel, they say they found the parents drinking by the pool, and the couple told them the children were alone upstairs in their room. Police said they were within reaching distance of beer and a pocket-knife.
The two were arrested on child neglect charges and have since bonded out of jail, reports WKMG.
"My poor babies, oh, my gosh, my poor babies. I was going to put them to bed, I promise, I was going to get my stuff and put them to bed," Rebecca El-Rhazouani is heard telling police on the video.
The woman wouldn't comment to the station.