An El Paso man was arrested after police found his crying 3-year-old daughter alone in a car as he drank at a bar, court documents state.
Alan Alberto Najera Melendez, 28, was arrested on suspicion of abandoning or endangering a child with intent to return, El Paso County jail records show.
Alan Alberto Najera Melendez
No attorney for Najera is named in court records.
‘I want my dad’
El Paso Police Department officers responded to a report of a child found alone in a vehicle not running about 1:13 a.m. March 16 in the parking lot of Brew Sports Pub West located at 8041 North Mesa St., a complaint affidavit states.
Officers arrived at the parking lot and began searching for the vehicle. A few minutes later, they found the 3-year-old girl alone in a car seat in the back of a black 2023 Kia Soul. The Kia was off and the doors were unlocked.
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Officers opened the door and asked the girl if she was okay. The girl “had tears rolling down her face, mucus around her nose,” the affidavit states. She told officers, “I want my dad.”
She was taken out of the car seat and given to El Paso Fire Medical crews to evaluate her. Officers and fire medical crews went inside the bar and, with the help of the bar’s general manager, began searching for the father.
Patrons told the officers two people ran from the bar’s front doors. The officers found Najera walking outside the bar. They asked him why he left his daughter in the car alone. He replied he had to use the restroom.
Officers smelled an “odor of an unknown alcohol coming from (Najera’s) breath,” the affidavit states. Najera was placed in handcuffs because he was allegedly attempting to leave. He was placed in the back of a patrol car, while the girl was placed in the front seat and given an officer’s jacket to stay warm.
The bar’s general manager told officers Najera and another person, who is not named in court documents, arrived around 12:30 a.m. Najera hid in the restroom as officers were searching for him, the general manager told police, the affidavit states. Najera and the other person had about three alcoholic drinks each at the bar, the general manager said.
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Officers contacted the person who initially reported the abandoned child. The reporter said she arrived at the bar around 11 p.m. and heard a baby crying. She saw two men searching for something inside the car.
The reporter left the bar about 12:10 a.m. and, as she walked out, saw the girl inside the car alone. She called emergency services to report the incident.
Officers took the girl to a police station and later released her to her mother, who currently has custody of the girl, the affidavit states.
Najera was booked March 16 on a $30,000 bond. He remains jailed as of Friday, March 21, jail logs show.
Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on X/Twitter @AMartinezEPT.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso man allegedly left daughter in car as he drank inside bar
