Mom faces drug, weapon charges after girl calls 911
White powder and a leafy green substance sat on a weighing scale on the living room coffee table. A black handgun sat on a shelf in an open bedroom closet, next to baggies holding a white rock-like substance. When police called for anyone in the apartment to come out, three little girls emerged from another bedroom.
Charleston police say they found a 7-year-old minding her 6-year-old and 4-year-old sisters alone Monday night.
Their mother, Quenica Anderson, 27, of the North Central neighborhood was arrested when she got home. She was charged with three counts of unlawful conduct toward a child, one count of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, one count of possession of a stolen firearm and one count of possession of cocaine base with intent to deliver.
She was in Charleston County Detention Center on Wednesday night in lieu of bail totaling $75,000.
It started with a 911 call that hung up, then another one about 8 p.m. when the caller gave only her name. Charleston Police Officer A.J. Thayer and a second officer went to the residence, knocked on the door, then announced, "Charleston Police Department" when no one answered. They listened at the door and heard a faint moaning, according to the report.
The door was unlocked and they went in, the report said, and saw on the coffee table "a silver AWS electronic scale with a white powdery substance and some green leafy substance on it." They called out for anyone in the residence to show themselves and the 7-year-old came out.
The girl told officers "she was watching her sisters while her mommy was out with her step daddy," the report said. The couple had left after dinner shortly before the calls were made.
On a sweep of the residence, the officers found the gun with a magazine in it and drugs on the master bedroom shelf, the report said. One of the girls told officers she had called 911 by accident and the children were OK.
The girls gave officers their mother's cell phone number. An officer called and "advised her to respond to the residence," according to the report. She was arrested when she arrived.
A Department of Social Services case worker took the children to a relative's home.
"The investigation continues," said Charles Francis, police public information officer.
