Submitted photo... When Struthers police entered a Sexton Street house last week, they discovered these “deplorable” conditions, according to their report.

STRUTHERS — A Struthers man is charged with child endangering after his 2-year-old son was found on a neighbor’s porch while he was “getting high and playing video games,” a police report states.

Cody Shields, 22, is scheduled for a hearing in Struthers Municipal Court on April 23 on the endangerment charge. He also is cited with possession of drugs and exterior property-code violation.

According to Struthers police, after 5:40 p.m. on Friday, officers were dispatched to a home on the 200 block of Sexton Street for a report of a 2-year-old on a woman’s front porch.

The boy was not wearing a coat or shoes, and the caller stated she did not know from where the child came. She did tell police that she saw him walking eastbound on Sexton Street without parental supervision before she saw him on her porch.

While officers took the child back to the station, two more officers attempted to locate the boy’s parents for about an hour, during which time no one called to report the child missing, according to the police report.

Officers then found the house where the child resides. Upon arrival, they found the back door open and announced their presence. Shields appeared, and seemed “perplexed” and that he hadn’t seen his son for about an hour when officers asked about the boy.

As law enforcement personnel spoke with Shields, they noticed the house to “be in extremely deplorable conditions” with dog feces on the floor and “dishes piled up on the sink,” the report states. A “noxious odor” was also observed by officers.

Shields then admitted “he was too busy getting high and playing video games” to pay attention to the boy, who exited the house through the back door and wandered on the sidewalk of the high-traffic road, police said.

In Shields’ room where he was playing video games, officers also found bongs, vape pens, marijuana bowls and drugs.

Upon his arrest on the endangering charge, Shields provided a voluntary written statement where he did advise that “he was not being a responsible parent as he was too busy playing video games and getting high to realize his 2-year-old son was missing until” officers made him aware, the report states.

Shields’ girlfriend, who also lives at the house, was contacted to meet officers and Shields at the police station immediately. She arrived after about an hour, police said. She agreed the home is deplorable, “but she thought Shields could be responsible enough to watch the child while she was at work.”

The boy was released to the girlfriend. The police report does not indicate if the girlfriend, who is not charged, is the boy’s mother.

The child endangering charge is a first-degree misdemeanor.

The report will be forwarded to both the prosecutor’s office and Mahoning County Children’s Services.

afox@tribtoday.com