Police: Antioch woman left babies in locked car

An Antioch woman is facing child endangerment charges after leaving her 4-month-old twins unattended inside a car at a store parking lot on Monday, police said.

Antioch police were called to Wal-Mart, 475 E. Route 173, after a woman called the department saying she found a vehicle in the parking lot with two infants locked inside, according to a news release.

The babies were unattended and crying, police said.

Officers stayed with the twins while store employees paged the owner of the vehicle to return to the parking lot.

According to store video footage, the twins were unattended for 12 minutes, police said.

Reginah S. Othola, 34, the twins’ mother, was charged with two counts of endangering the life of a child and one count of resisting and obstructing a peace officer.

During the booking process at the Antioch Police Department, officials said Othola became combative and had to be restrained when she tried to destroy booking documents by grabbing a statement form and putting it in her mouth.

All charges are misdemeanors; if convicted, Othola could face up to one year in jail or fines up to $2,500, according to the news release.

Othola was also reported to the Department of Children and Family Services, which will be conducting its own investigation, police said.