Missouri 8-year-old caught driving car while mom slept in backseat: police

ST. LOUIS ( KTVI ) – An 8-year-old was found driving a car in St. Louis on Monday while his mother slept in the backseat with a younger child, authorities said.

According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s probable cause statement, the child was seen driving in the wrong direction of traffic in the downtown area.

Police did not specify the time of day the incident happened.

The 8-year-old told police their mother could no longer drive and instructed them to take over.

The mother, identified as 28-year-old Latonta Mayes-Gale, was found unconscious in the back of the vehicle along with a 3-year-old who was not secured in a car seat.

Police took Mayes-Gale into custody, and the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office charged her with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Neither police nor prosecutors indicated why Mayes-Gale was asleep in the backseat.

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