Father charged after daughter, 6, strangles baby brother

HOUSTON— Police have charged a Houston man with child abandonment after concluding that his 6-year-old daughter strangled her 1-year-old brother with a seatbelt in the family car parked outside a thrift store while their father shopped.

Adrian Dreshuan Middleton was charged Friday in the May 20 incident on the eastern edge of Houston. A criminal complaint says the 26-year-old father told investigators that he parked outside the thrift store, left the air conditioner on, gave the children water and a snack and played a movie while he went into the store to shop for clothes.

Surveillance video showed Middleton was in the store for almost 1½ hours before returning and noticing his daughter crying in the back seat. The child told investigators that she was playing with her brother and got angry when he wouldn’t stop crying. She said she wrapped the seatbelt around her brother and thought he had fallen asleep.

No arrest has been made. Jail records list no attorney for him.