Cops: Child on street as sitter slept

MIDDLETOWN — A city man is accused of endangering a young boy found roaming a busy downtown intersection in a T-shirt and diaper over the weekend while the man slept.

Police were called to O’Rourke’s Diner on Main Street on Sunday just before 7 a.m. about a small child alone and walking around the street partially clothed. The area is a busy roadway with motorists traveling to and from both the Arrigoni Bridge and Route 9.

Officers report the boy’s diaper was sagging and appeared to be full, and he was unable to communicate with them.

A witness said she was driving half a block away on Main Street and Rapallo Avenue when she saw the boy on the sidewalk, close to the road, walk on to Main Street, according to the report.

When authorities canvassed the area, they reportedly found a man and woman in front of the soup kitchen who said they had witnessed the child walk from Green Street to Main Street. Officers checked the Wharfside Commons housing complex nearby, looking for open doors, but were unsuccessful, the report said.

Police later learned the boy had walked a tenth of a mile, they said.

While the boy was being checked out for medical issues at the hospital emergency room, his mother called looking for him, the report said. The mother told them Forrest Henderson, 35, of the 600 block of Main Street was supposed to be looking after the child, according to the report.

Henderson allegedly told officers the child must have pushed open the apartment's broken and unsecured door and left at about 8 a.m., while he was asleep.

At 4:30 p.m., officers went to Henderson’s apartment and knocked several times with no response, then a child answered and led them inside, where three children under 8 were by themselves, the report said. Police called out for Henderson several times and he eventually came downstairs in his boxer shorts, appearing to have been asleep, they said.

While authorities were waiting for Henderson, one of the children came down the stairs with a container of insecticide spray in his hands, so it was taken from him, according to police.

Henderson was released on $25,000 bail and is due back in court Sept. 7.