3-year-old left on Gwinnett park bench to ‘learn his lesson,’ found running through traffic

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A 3-year-old boy found running through traffic on a busy road at night near a Gwinnett County Park was left alone by his mother to “learn his lesson” after misbehaving, according to police.

Will Mosley and his wife Michelle told Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson that they were driving near DeShong Park last Tuesday night at around 10:30 when they spotted a boy running in the road.

“I stopped in the middle of the road, turned on flashers and said, ‘Michelle, that’s a baby,’” said Mosley.

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The couple said the child asked them if he could get in their car and said the boy appeared scared. The Mosleys called 911 and met officers at a gas station at North DeShong Road and Rockbridge Road near Stone Mountain.

“If I didn’t find him,” Mosley said, fighting back tears, “he would have gotten hit.”

When police arrived, they asked the boy questions about where he lived and where his parents were. According to a police report, it took 34 minutes from the initial call about the boy being in the road before the child’s mother alerted police that she could not locate her son.

Gabrielle Buckley, 28, later identified herself to police as the boy’s mother and met with officers that night.

According to the police report, Buckley allegedly “told her son that if he did not change his behavior then he was going to be left at the park.”

The report goes on to say she “left her son at the picnic table by himself and drove down to the other end of the park pretending to leave so he could learn his lesson.”

That’s when police say the child ran from DeShong Park until the Mosleys found him a quarter of a mile away near South Rockbridge Road.

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Police charged the mother with misdemeanor reckless conduct and arrested her that night. She was later released on bond.

“It’s not legal to punish your child in a manner that’s going to cause that child emotional or excessive physical harm,” said Sgt. Collin Flynn with Gwinnett County police.

She told police that she was with her boyfriend and only left her son at the park for a minute. Before calling 911, she told officers she and her boyfriend had searched the park themselves in hopes of finding her son.

Will Mosley says he’s glad the child is okay but confused as to why the boy was ever in harm’s way.

“That’s so cruel,” he said. “I’ve never punished my kids in that kind of way.”

Police say the mother’s boyfriend is also facing reckless conduct charges.

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