RCSD arrests woman for leaving 3-year-old in vehicle while she received manicure

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - A woman has been arrested in Richland County for Unlawful Conduct Towards a Child after leaving her 3-year-old in a vehicle while she got a manicure, RCSD deputies said.

Dougrica Lewis, 32, was arrested, according to RCSD.

On Feb. 7, deputies were dispatched to reports of a child being left unattended in a vehicle at a parking lot. The deputy who responded saw the child sitting inside the vehicle by himself with the windows cracked open on the driver’s side only.

The outside temperature at the time of the incident was around 80 degrees and the child was inside sweating, deputies said.

Deputies reached through the cracked window, unlocked the car door and removed the child from the back seat. Deputies then approached the only woman getting a manicure in a salon, later identified as Lewis, about the child.

Lewis said she had done nothing wrong by leaving her 3-year-old son in the vehicle because she could see him from inside the salon. She said she had to leave her toddler inside of the vehicle because the nail salon had a policy that prohibited children under the age of 10.

Lewis was charged with Unlawful Conduct Toward a Child and taken to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. She has since bonded out. Her toddler was taken to the hospital for evaluation.

Sheriff Lott would like to stress the importance of not leaving children unattended in vehicles at any time — not even for a second. Six children died in South Carolina from hyperthermia in 2018, up from one in 2017 and zero in 2016, according to a database that tracks hyperthermia deaths by San Jose State University.

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