Parents taken into custody in Ashland City after being found asleep in car with drugs, baby inside

ASHLAND CITY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Ashland City authorities arrested two young parents who were found passed out in their vehicle with drugs and an infant in the backseat over the weekend.

On Sunday, Aug. 25, the Ashland City Police Department (ACPD) responded to a welfare check at the Circle K gas station on Main Street after people reported a car had been at the pumps for 90 minutes.

When officers approached the vehicle, 21-year-old Brooke Osborne was reportedly slumped over in the driver’s seat while her 22-year-old boyfriend, Elijah Mixon, was passed out in the passenger seat. Police also found the couple’s 9-month-old baby in the backseat.

On the body camera footage, you can hear the officers knocking on the window, causing the two parents to stir, and asking whether the infant was alright.

From the beginning, officers asked the couple if they were okay and if they were under the influence. However, both parents claimed they were just tired.

Once the young woman was out of the car, the officer asked if there was anything narcotic-related. Osborne denied it.

Officer: “It’s just you being tired?”

Osborne: “Yes — newborn baby, just so much going on.”

Officer: “Is there anything in the that car I need to be concerned about?”

Osborne: “No.”

According to authorities, the 22-year-old father appeared disoriented and was initially reluctant to exit the car after officers asked him to get out multiple times for safety reasons.

Police checked with nearby Circle K staff members, who told investigators the vehicle had been at the pumps for about 90 minutes, but they weren’t sure that anyone was even in the car.

Officers spotted a drug pipe under the driver’s seat where Osborne was sitting. When authorities asked her about it, she said she doesn’t use it, but after being pressed about drug use, the young woman told law enforcement she does smoke weed once in a while.

When police searched the vehicle, they found narcotics including marijuana, ecstasy pills, and a powdery substance that officers opened away from the baby in the backseat. According to officials, the substance later tested positive for fentanyl

“It’s hard on anybody, even being a parent or not, to know that that kid that cannot fend for himself or herself is having to deal with the actions of his parents,” ACPD Sgt. Alexis Duncan, a new mother, told News 2.

The couple was arrested and read their rights.

Later in the investigation, both parents admitted they ingested the fentanyl thinking it was heroin. They told officers they purchased the drug from a new dealer.

“It was very little,” Osborne said in the body cam video.

“Okay. Same stuff? Is that why you were both passed out at the wheel?” an officer replied.

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Before going to jail, a handcuffed Mixon said goodbye to his child, who suffered no ill effects from the narcotics in the car.

“This needs to be a wake up call, number one. Alright? So we gotta start changing some decisions that we’re making in our life,” an officer told the young couple at the scene.

“It’s a little stressful to find people that can abuse narcotics and drugs like that with knowing their kid is in the car and around them doing the same thing,” Duncan added.

Both suspects are still being held in the Cheatham County Jail for child abuse. Mixon was also charged with multiple drug offenses and domestic assault.

News 2 reached out to Osborne for a comment, but she declined

Officials from the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services confirmed they have opened up an investigation. Meanwhile, ACPD told News 2 the infant was released into the custody of other family members.

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