A Georgia mother is facing possible jail time after her 10-year-old son was found walking alone in town less than a mile from the family’s home.
According to the Fannon County Sheriff’s Office, 41-year-old Brittany Patterson was arrested Oct. 30 on suspicion of reckless endangerment for her son’s unsupervised walk.
Patterson had taken another son to a doctor’s appointment when she left her son Soren, now 11, alone at their home in the rural town of Mineral Bluff. NBC News reported. After someone reported Soren wandering around, deputies located him and took him home.
“It’s not super dangerous or even dangerous,” Patterson told the outlet. “I was not afraid for him or for his safety.”
Susan Smith, prosecutor says, faces life in prison as killer mother gets parole hearing
Brittany Patterson, 41, was arrested after her son was found walking alone less than a mile from home in the rural town of Mineral Bluff, Georgia. (Fannon County Sheriff’s Office)
Still, deputies later returned to the home and arrested Patterson.
In the body cam footage ABC News, Deputies can be heard telling Peterson that he is under arrest for reckless endangerment.
Brittany Patterson, 41, was arrested after deputies received a report that her son, then 10, was walking alone less than a mile from the family’s home. (Fannon County Sheriff’s Office)
“And how was I carelessly endangering my child?” Patterson asked.
Another deputy responded, “We’re not talking about that,” before handcuffing the mother.
Minnesota son, 31, charged with killing father ‘execution style’ as relatives watch: Police
Patterson and her attorney said authorities offered to drop the charge if she signed a safety plan that included the use of a GPS tracker on her son’s phone.
The mother said she refuses to sign the plan and will contest the charge.
“I just felt like I couldn’t sign it and, by doing that, agree that there was something unsafe about my home or about my parenting decisions,” the mother told ABC News. There’s something insecure about me and I don’t believe it,” the mother told ABC News. .
Click to get the Fox News app.
Patterson was released on $500 bail and faces up to a year in jail on the charge.
