BATON ROUGE - Officers arrested the mother of a 4-year-old child after he was taken to the hospital with multiple injuries from being hit by a car.

Shannon Moore was arrested Wednesday for child desertion and improper supervision of a minor. She told the Baton Rouge Police Department her son had opened the door to her home and ran outside. She tried to chase him, couldn't catch him, and reportedly waited 30 minutes before calling the police. 

According to the warrant, this is not the first time police were called due to the boy escaping. The mother told police that he has previously escaped two or three times by opening their apartment door and leaving through the automatic fence.

Neighbors told WBRZ they are not surprised by the incident and children run around the complex unsupervised all the time. With one saying he's seen a child standing by the exit gate that leads to the main road a few weeks ago and he hopes it wasn't the same child. 

"The parents would let their children out by themselves," a neighbor said.

Another neighbor said children who run around by themselves look to be as young as three-years-old and there is minimal security on the property.

"Those children wander around here. The parents don't seem to care," they said.