NCST News This article updates a post made to the NCST Facebook Page at the time of the incident. Click here to view the details of that post.
At 7:36 PM on Thursday, May 21st, Coweta County E911 received a call from employees at Once Upon a Child, located at 19 Millard Farmer Industrial Blvd.
The employees stated there was a female in the store that was “nodding” and was possibly overdosing. A CCFD EMS unit, as well as NFD units, were dispatched to the location.
As dispatch was able to gather more information from the caller, and at 7:40 PM they were notified that the woman had a toddler with her and that before nodding out she’d been beating the child with a coat hanger.
At this point, the incoming medical units were notified they may have an injured child as well.
Newnan Police Department officers were dispatched to the scene as well.
Medical units arrived on the scene at 7:42 PM. Within a minute they were joined by the first NPD unit as well as a CCSO unit that was in the area when the call went out.
" By 7:44 PM an NPD officer informs dispatch that the female had left the location and had left her child in the store. "
Within minutes dispatch is notified that they’ve located and stopped the suspect in a red vehicle in the parking lot nearby. Units provide dispatch the vehicle’s plate number and after running the vehicle dispatch notifies units that they have information from a police interaction with ( I believe the registered owner of the vehicle ) her from March 9th and that she is a “spitter”.
The child was checked by EMS on the scene and found to be uninjured, they also checked on the female who had been detained and she refused any medical services.
Units on the scene continued to investigate, eventually asking for a female officer to respond to multiple female searches. Radio traffic also suggests that an NPD K9 unit was on the scene during the search of the suspects’ vehicle as well.
At 9:01 AM that female NPD unit informs dispatch that she has a female under arrest and is transporting her to the Coweta County Jail. A few minutes later another NPD officer informs dispatch that he has one female in custody and is transporting her to the jail as well.
We’ve been thus far unable to confirm which of the two suspects arrested was the source of the original medical call inside Once Upon a Child. We’ve requested the officer’s narrative report from the incident in hopes of confirming which suspect it was. We will update with the information as soon as we are able to obtain it.
Charges
The following two female suspects were arrested at the scene and transported to the Coweta County Jail for the listed charges.
Melissa Lynn Dalessandro
Dalessandro is 38 and lists an address in Sharpsburg for her residence.
- purchase, possess, or have control of any controlled substv (F)
- vgcsa sch 1/2 narcotic possession (F)
- reckless conduct (M)
- drugs not in original container (M)
Dalessandro’s bail information isn’t currently available, but records show that she was released from the jail the next day, March 22nd at 9:35 PM.
Hannah Nicole Quinn
Quinn is 36 and lists an address in Newnan for her residence.
- purchase, possess, or have control of any controlled substv (F)
- vgcsa sch 1/2 narcotic possession (F)
- reckless conduct (M)
- drugs not in original container (M)
Quinn’s bail information isn’t currently available, but records show that she was released from the jail on March 23rd at 1:53 PM.
More Information
The Child
There is no information available through public records or radio traffic regarding the fate of the child other than EMS checking her over on the scene.
It’s my understanding of general agency procedure that they would first attempt to contact the child’s father, followed by a close relative to take custody of the child from the scene.
If they were unable to do so they would then be forced to contact DFCS to take emergency custody of the child.
I think it’s safe to say that either of those paths would have been a better option for the child then the situation they were found in while in the custody of their mother.
Information Requested
I’ve requested the incident report, officer narrative, and any bodycam footage available for this incident.
There is a possibility due to there being a child involved in the incident that this information is exempted from open records request. I will update this post with the outcome of that request either way.
