A Waterbury man was fast asleep as his two-year-old nephew wandered alone on a busy street, according to police.
Waterbury police arrested John Dominguez and charged him with risk of injury to a minor for the Friday morning incident.
Shirley Elhannaoui was driving along Eastern Avenue in Waterbury when she saw the boy running down the busy road, with a mailman and a woman frantically trying to catch him. She says she saw three cars nearly hit the boy, so she blocked traffic with her car and rushed to help.
"Turned my car to block the road here, jumped out of my car, and grabbed the baby who was in nothing but pajamas," said Elhannaoui. "My instinct was just to get behind him, bear hug him, and just grab him." The mailman was on the phone with police, and they soon arrived on the scene. The boy's uncle was watching him and fell asleep, according to police. That's when the boy wandered out of their Bliss Street apartment through an unlocked door, police said. No one answered the door at that apartment when we stopped by. As police continued their investigation at the scene, Dominguez approached them and tried to get the boy back, according to Elhannaoui. They refused to turn the child over to him. The child was not hurt in the ordeal. "People need to be more vigilant of who they're leaving their children with," said Elhannaoui. Besides police, the Department of Children and Families is also investigating the incident.
