COLLINGDALE, Pennsylvania — A 37-year-old Delaware County mother has been charged with two second-degree felonies after an investigation into allegations that her 8-year-old son repeatedly fled their Collingdale home between August and October 2026 — including one night when he was found barefoot in the rain around 10:50 p.m., crying and begging police not to return him because he feared being beaten, according to court documents reported on Thursday, November 5. Dominique Summerhill, 37, of Collingdale, faces charges of endangering the welfare of a child by a parent or guardian and aggravated assault. The allegations, set out in an affidavit of probable cause, have not been proven in court, and Summerhill is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. The child is not named in the court reporting, and Awaaz Punjab does not identify him.
The case was built by the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division from Collingdale and Darby police reports, body camera footage and a forensic interview, after the incidents were discussed at an October 16 multidisciplinary meeting of the agencies that investigate child abuse in the county. Investigators allege that Summerhill failed to properly supervise her son and subjected him to physical abuse that left him fearful of returning home — a fear the affidavit says the boy expressed to officers again and again, in encounters that began on an August morning outside a Walmart and continued through October.
August 20: found outside a Walmart, twice in one morning
The first documented incident occurred on August 20, when police found the boy crying outside a Walmart on MacDade Boulevard in Darby Township around 8:47 a.m. According to the affidavit of probable cause, the child begged officers not to take him home, telling them his mother would beat him. After police returned him to the residence, the boy immediately ran out the back door while officers were still there. Later that morning, around 11:48 a.m., Darby Borough police responded to another report of the child being outside alone. When officers attempted to return him home again, Summerhill allegedly acknowledged having physically disciplined him earlier. According to court documents, Collingdale police contacted Children and Youth Services but ultimately transported the child to his grandparents' home in Chester because officers were uncomfortable returning him to his mother. Police also filed a ChildLine report — a filing with Pennsylvania's statewide child-abuse reporting system.
October 11: barefoot in the rain at 10:50 p.m.
On October 11, police received two 911 calls from people who spotted the boy outside alone in the rain without shoes around 10:50 p.m. According to the affidavit, the child was crying hysterically and repeatedly begging officers not to return him home. Investigators said police body camera footage captured Summerhill acknowledging that she had gone after the boy with a belt because he had not completed household chores. During the encounter, the child told officers, “I don't want to get beat anymore,” according to court documents. Summerhill allegedly refused to surrender the belt when the boy asked police to take it. The affidavit states that the child became so distressed about returning home that he expressed suicidal thoughts. Despite his pleas, police returned him to the residence. Investigators said Summerhill had not contacted authorities to report that her son had left home.
October 14: the Wawa call
Three days later, on October 14, Collingdale police received another call after the child reportedly ran through a Wawa at 910 MacDade Boulevard saying he was hungry. The boy returned home before officers arrived. According to investigators, Summerhill again had not notified police that her son had left the residence. MacDade Boulevard is the commercial spine that runs through Collingdale, Darby and the neighbouring Delaware County boroughs — the same corridor where the August Walmart incident and the October Wawa incident both occurred, within a short distance of the family home.
How the case reached prosecutors
Authorities with the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division reviewed the incidents after the case was discussed during the October 16 multidisciplinary meeting involving agencies that investigate child abuse. Investigators examined Collingdale police reports, body camera footage and a forensic interview involving the child. According to the affidavit, the boy did not disclose abuse during the forensic interview; however, authorities noted that he had repeatedly described being beaten by his mother during earlier encounters with police. Investigators also cited Summerhill's alleged statements to responding officers, including acknowledgments that she had physically disciplined the child and pursued him with a belt. The two felony charges followed from that review.
Delaware County's boroughs — Collingdale, Darby, Upper Darby and Millbourne, a few miles from where these incidents happened along MacDade Boulevard — are home to one of the Philadelphia area's largest South Asian communities, including Punjabi families, shops and places of worship. This case is also a practical map of how child protection works in Pennsylvania: a bystander's 911 call, a ChildLine report, Children and Youth Services involvement, a county multidisciplinary review, and only then criminal charges — a sequence that took from August 20 to November in this case, and one any reader who ever worries about a child on their own street may one day need to understand.
The charges and what happens next
According to court records, Summerhill faces two second-degree felony charges: endangering the welfare of a child by a parent or guardian, and aggravated assault. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday, November 19, at 9 a.m. before Magisterial District Judge Andrew Goldberg. A preliminary hearing is the stage at which a district judge decides whether the evidence is sufficient for the charges to proceed toward trial in the county Court of Common Pleas; it is not a trial, and no finding of guilt is made there. The allegations have not been proven in court, and Summerhill is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. Awaaz Punjab will update this story after the November 19 hearing.