Father Charged with Child Endangerment After 6-Year-Old Daughter Kills Toddler Brother. He Left Them

"It was an accident" family members are saying after a Houston father was charged with child endangerment for leaving his children unattended last May. Adrian Dreshaun Middleton, 26, left his two children, a 6-year-old girl and one-year-old boy, in the car while he went into a thrift store to shop. Middleton told authorities that he'd given the children snacks and water, put on a movie and left the air conditioner on to make the children comfortable. He claims to only have been gone for 45 minutes, checking on the children through a store window, and when he returned he found his son dead and his daughter crying because she "did a bad thing."

ABC13 reports:

"The girl told police that she was playing with her little brother while her dad was shopping for clothes. She said the boy started crying when she stopped playing with him, so she got angry and wrapped the seat belt around him.

She told officers she thought he had fallen asleep.

When Middleton returned to the car, he put his bags in the back of the car and saw his daughter crying. The girl reportedly told him she had to use the restroom and that she had done something bad.

Middleton saw the seat belt wrapped around the 1-year-old's neck and found he was not responding. He called 911 and attempted CPR until the ambulance arrived. The boy was taken to Texas Children's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead."

Middleton's story didn't line up with store security cameras. Security footage has him entering the first store at 10:45am and leaving the second store at around 12:15pm. Police also found the vehicle void of carseats that Middleton claimed the children were sitting in.

His son's death was ruled "homicide by strangulation" and, because of her age, his daughter will not be charged with the crime. There is no mention of the children's mother but the girl has been placed in the custody of her grandmother.

Middleton has been charged with child abandonment no bond has been set for him as of today.