Father of Child Left Alone on Texas Doorstep Says Incident Was ‘Very Irresponsible’

The father of the 2-year-old boy who was left at a stranger’s doorstep in a Houston, Texas, suburb has spoken out.

It was later revealed that the woman in the video, Keairra Woods, might have left the boy on the doorstep due to a misunderstanding. “And the only reason I took off running was because it was chilly outside and I didn’t have [a] sweater on, as you can see in the video,” she told KTRK about the incident, which was captured on a woman’s home surveillance camera before she turned it over to the local sheriff’s department.

Woods insisted that she was helping out her friend’s aunt, the mother of the child, when she rushed with the boy in her hand to the doorstep before quickly ringing the doorbell and running away. Woods said she was under the impression that she was leaving the boy with his father, who lives nearby.

“What if my neighbor wasn’t there?” Willie Simmons, who lived next door, told the station. “If my neighbor wasn’t there, my son would have been roaming up and down the street,” Simmons added.

“That was very irresponsible. And I feel the lady who dropped my son off needs to be held accountable,” Simmons continued.

“I am angry! I am upset! Every time I watch the video I get more and more madder,” he also told Inside Edition.

Lt. Scott Spencer of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office told KPRC that Simmons told police he was expecting that the boy would be dropped off during the afternoon. But the child was dropped off later in the night.

The mother of the child sent him a text message, saying that her friend would come by to take the boy home because she was in the hospital, according to Spencer in the report.

Spencer, meanwhile, said that after the boy was found, police canvassed the neighborhood. They knocked on Simmons’ door but no one answered.

But Spencer suggested that the woman should have been more patient and responsible.

“Had she waited just seven seconds, the homeowner would have opened the door and maybe would’ve started a conversation, dialogue to direct her to the correct house to drop the child off,” Spencer said.

Woods Speaks Out

“Everything blew out of proportion,“ Keairra Woods told Inside Edition in an interview on Oct. 22.  ”I’m getting blamed for everything.”

She said she saw a woman coming to the door when she rang the doorbell, and she thought it was the boy’s stepmother. “I could see her through the glass window,” Woods said. “I’m pretty sure she could see me standing there too.”

“I didn’t stay at the door because I seen (sic) her coming halfway to the door,” Woods added.

The child was placed temporarily with Child Protective Services in Houston. The boy is now back with his mother.

Woods said that she didn’t mean any harm.

“Everybody looking at me like I’m the bad person, I was only helping my friend out by doing her a favor,” Woods said.