Shantonia Heard, 27, rushed into the emergency room at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, with her 1-year-old daughter along with another 3-year-old child. Her daughter was in physical distress, and Heard told the hospital staff that her daughter had consumed Epsom salts from a styrofoam cup a few hours earlier and started having a reaction. Emergency room workers went into action to stabilize the child and began to run tests. When they started receiving the results back they immediately called the police.
It turned out the child had overdosed on methamphetamine and Heard was soon placed into police custody. Investigators then went to the Baymont Inn and Suites in Cobb County, Georgia, in suburban Atlanta and discovered that Heard him and her boyfriend were running a drug lab out of the hotel while the children were present. As police searched the room they discovered that the fire alarms had been removed or disabled and leftover pieces of blunts filled with marijuana. As police were continuing their investigation, Heard’s boyfriend, Lorenzo Harris, 40, pulled up to the hotel.
Police noticed the strong odor of marijuana coming from his car and detained Harris while a search warrant was issued for the vehicle. Inside the car, police discovered damning evidence of illegal activity. This included marijuana, crack cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin in clear plastic baggies. Also recovered was $9,215 in cash, a Smith and Wesson SW9VE 9 mm, a Taurus Millennium G2 9 mm, and a Kalashnikov AK47. 762 caliber rifle.
Harris and Heard were booked into the Cobb County jail and are being held without bond and face drug, weapons and child cruelty charges. The children are in protective custody with the Division of Family and Children Services.
Update: Heard’s charges were eventually dropped and the boyfriend, Lorenzo Harris is now serving time.
