Woman facing charges after approaching children at Fuquay-Varina car wash
A Fuquay-Varina woman removed a child's car seat from a stranger's back seat Tuesday night and dragged the seat across a parking lot, according to an arrest warrant.
Posted — UpdatedJessica Rose Flanagan, 36, of Coley Farm Road, was charged with assault on a child and assault inflicting serious injury with a minor present. She had a court appearance on Wednesday. Flanagan was jailed on a $3,000 secured bond.
According to police, the incident occurred around 8:45 p.m. in the parking lot of the Sunshine Car Wash along 961 South Judd Parkway. The mother told WRAL she was parked at the car wash and was vacuuming her vehicle with her two children inside. She stepped away to get change and her 10-year-old noticed a disoriented woman approach their vehicle.
The woman said Flanagan approached the vehicle and tried to take her 4-year-old son as his 10-year-old brother watched. The woman said she told Flanagan to let him go, which she did.
The woman then said Flanagan took the car seat out and drug it across the parking lot. There was no child in the car seat. Police said Flanagan then let go of the car seat and fled across the parking lot, where she remained until officers arrived.
According to the boys' grandmother, Annette Wilson, Flanagan approached the car from a wooded area and appeared disoriented and confused.
“I started screaming because I didn’t know what she was trying to do,” said Corey Leach, the 10-year-old brother who witnessed the incident. “And I said ‘put my little brother down.’ My mom said it, too.”
Court records indicate Flanagan was also charged between 2007 and 2009 with driving while impaired and assault on a government official.
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