RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — A mother of three was arrested after police found her children locked inside a pickup truck at a Marathon gas station for as long as three hours with a loaded handgun on the floor, Riviera Beach police said.
Officers responded about 1:30 p.m. on Monday to a report of a truck and trailer left at a pump at the Marathon station near the intersection of Congress Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, police said.
Inside the vehicle, they found a 20-month-old, a 5-year-old and a 16-year-old alone, investigators said.
As officers searched for the parents, they discovered a fully loaded 9 mm handgun on the floor of the truck, police said.
Investigators located the children’s mother, 36-year-old Torquita Griffin, and the father of the 20-month-old, 26-year-old D’Ontai Lorenzo Williams Armstrong, shopping at a nearby store.
Police said the couple was traveling from the Jacksonville area and preparing to return north.
Griffin told investigators she holds a concealed-weapons permit and that the gun was hers, police said. “This could have been a recipe for a very serious incident,” Riviera Beach Public Information Officer Mike Jachles said.
“A loaded gun, three children, no adult around — the outcome could have been much worse.”
Armstrong was cited for trespassing. Griffin faces multiple charges, including child neglect and weapons violations, police said.
The Florida Department of Children and Families is involved and would not comment further on the children’s status, other than to say they are safe, police said.
