ST. MARYS, Ga. – A pair of security guards who were patrolling the grounds of a St. Marys, Georgia, apartment complex are credited with coming to the aid of two children — a baby and toddler.
Security guards David Tillman and Jonathan Hall said that late Wednesday night while on foot patrol inside the Cumberland Oaks Apartments, an unusual sound caught their attention.
“We heard a little girl crying in the darkness,” Hall said.
“We went searching for where the sounds of this child were coming from,” Tillman added. “We shined our flashlights and she was wandering around, and when we walked up, she ran to us and asked where her momma was.”
Both security guards said they looked around and saw the door to an apartment wide open.
“Myself, my sergeant, the child and a neighbor went inside the apartment and saw the apartment was completely vacant,” Tillman said. “It looked like nothing was in there, then my sergeant and the neighbor found another child that was younger in age on the floor.”
Investigators said the child on the floor was a 1-year-old baby who had been left unattended. The security guards said there was no food in the apartment and that the parents of both children were nowhere to be found, so they called the police.
When officers arrived, they conducted an emergency removal of the children and took them to the police station where they were held in protective custody. Tillman and Hall said the parents returned to the apartment and told police they left to go get food.
Christina Denny, 23, and Carl Jones, 32, were both arrested and charged with child abandonment and child abuse.
As for the two security guards credited with saving the children, this incident is something that hits close to home.
“As a parent myself, I can’t imagine leaving my kids alone like that,” Hall said.
“From a professional standpoint, we can’t be emotional about it. But from a parental standpoint, it filled me with absolute disgust,” Tillman said.
The two children are now in the custody of their grandmother.