River Ridge mom barricades herself in apartment after cops called in child desertion case

A River Ridge mother allegedly barricaded herself in another person's apartment early Sunday morning as Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office deputies attempted to investigate a claim that she had left her 5-year-old daughter home alone for several hours. In addition to child desertion, Shannon Hill, 37, was booked with false imprisonment for allegedly refusing to allow the apartment's resident to leave, according to Glen T. Boyd, spokesman for the department.

JPSOShannon Hill

Boyd said an unidentified person flagged down a passing deputy just after midnight Sunday to tell them that a little girl in the the area of Cumberland Street in River Ridge had been home alone for several hours. The tipster told deputies the girl's mother was nearby, possibly doing drugs, Boyd said.

Deputies spent almost an hour searching for the girl before they found her inside of a Cumberland Street home. Authorities had to contact the residence's landlord to get inside the house. 

Once they did, they found the girl lying on a sofa sweating profusely. When asked the whereabouts of her mother, the girl said, "I don't know," the report said.

Authorities were still on the scene investigating when Hill, the girl's mother, turned up, Boyd said. A deputy spotted her walking down the street toward her home. But Hill  took off running toward nearby Jesse Owens Playground when a deputy called her name, Boyd said.

Hill disappeared during the foot chase. Deputies soon learned that she was holed up in a nearby apartment in the 11100 block of Newton Street, Boyd said. The apartment's owner arrived told investigators that her boyfriend was being "held down" by Hill, the report said.

Authorities aren't sure whether Hill knew the resident in the apartment, and they don't know how she managed to "hold" him. "He said she was holding him against his will," Boyd said. But deputies eventually got into the apartment and took Hill into custody.

Hill, of 511 S. Cumberland St., River Ridge, was booked Sunday at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna with child desertion, cruelty to a juvenile, two counts of false imprisonment, unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling and resisting arrest by flight. She was still being held there Monday without bond.