Mother charged after toddler falls out of moving car in Mankato

MANKATO, Minn. (FOX 9) - A 40-year-old Mankato woman is charged with endangering a child after her two-year-old, who was strapped in a car seat, fell out of the car she was driving earlier this week.

Maimuna Kunow Hassan is facing up to one year in prison and a $3,000 fine for the gross misdemeanor. She is also charged with improperly restraining her child in the car seat and violating her instructional driver's permit as there was not another licensed driver in the car.

According to the criminal complaint, Monday around 11:45 a.m., a man waved down a police officer on patrol on Riverfront Drive in Mankato. The man told the officer he saw a child strapped in the car seat fall out of a car and onto the road. The car, however, did not stop. FOX 9 obtained dash camera video which captured the entire incident. Officers later identified the driver as Hassan.

An ambulance crew checked the two-year-old for injuries, but the child appeared to be okay.

While officers were talking to witnesses, Hassan and another child walked up to police. Crying and upset, she hugged the child who had fallen out of the vehicle. 

Through a translator, Hassan told police the door popped open while she was driving and her child fell out. She parked the car along the 200 block of E Cherry Street and walked back to where her two-year-old fell out. She claimed the child was secured and must have unlocked the car door.

An officer inspected the car seat and found the chest straps were not latched and there was not a LATCH strap to secure the car seat to the car. Hassan's car, a 2004 Honda Civic, is LATCH-compatible. Inside the vehicle, he noted there was not a seat restraint system.

Hassan's first court appearance is scheduled for February 14.