ST. LOUIS – An 8-year-old was found driving a car in downtown St. Louis on Monday while his mother slept in the backseat with a younger child.

According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s probable cause statement, the child was seen driving in the wrong direction of traffic at South 4th and Walnut streets. Police did not specify the time of day.

The 8-year-old told police their mother could no longer drive and instructed them to take over. The mother was found unconscious in the back of the vehicle, along with a 3-year-old who was not secured in a car seat.

Police took the mother, Latonta Mayes-Gale, 28, into custody.

The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office charged Mayes-Gale with two counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

Neither police nor prosecutors indicated why Mayes-Gale was asleep in the backseat.