Dad abandons young children at roadside--apparently during visitation (Tuscon, Arizona)

The article leaves the custodial status of dad SHAWN WILSON-TOLIVER (purposefully?) vague. But notice the references to "his apartment" (meaning he does not live with the mother) and that he was supposed to be "caring for them" ("them" meaning three kids under 2 years of age). But Daddy was all pissy at Mom so he abandoned the kids on a roadside. Sure sounds like a case where a young, never married father obtained visitation to reduce/eliminate child support, though the father-friendly media refuses to clarify the situation or whether this was court ordered,

http://www.kgun9.com/news/local/136448968.html

Father charged with child abuse

 CREATED Dec. 30, 2011

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - A 20-year-old father has been arrested after admitting to authorities that he left his three children on the side of the road.

The father also admitted to authorities that he had previously left his children alone in his apartment.

Authorities say on the Thursday evening just before 7 p.m., the Tucson Police Department was notified of an incident in which three young children were found on the side of the road in the 6600 Block of South Via Vista De Santa Cruz.

The children included a male that was just under 6 months old, a male that was just under 15 months old, and a female that was approximately 2 1/2 years old, according to authorities.

A citizen that lived in the area called 911 to report that she found the children after she heard crying coming from the front yard of her residence.

The citizen reported that the children appeared to have been left abandoned on the side of the road, near a desert area, due to the fact that there was a diaper bag containing miscellaneous items with them and the smallest child was in a car seat, police say.

Authorities say the female child had walked to the front yard of the citizen’s residence and was crying, which is what the citizen heard. Officers from Operations Division South responded to the area and began their search for the parents of the children.

After approximately two hours, the mother of the children approached officers in the area and advised them that she was looking for her children. She told the officers that the father of the children was supposed to be caring for them. Earlier in the evening on Thursday, she and the father had engaged in an argument and the father left her residence, according to police.

Approximately 45 minutes after he left her house, she received a telephone call from him, advising that he had left the children on the side of the road in a neighborhood near her house. She immediately began to look for the children and soon came upon the officers that had responded to the report of the found children, according to police.

Detectives from the Dependent Child Unit responded to further the investigation into the actions and whereabouts of the father.

Officers from Operations Division Midtown located the father later in the evening Thursday and took him into custody.

The detectives confirmed that he had engaged in an argument with the mother of the children before leaving her residence and then abandoning the children on the side of the road.

The father, identified as 20-year-old Shawn Wilson-Toliver, was arrested for 3 counts of Child Abuse, a Class 2 Felony. He was transported and booked into the Pima County Jail.