KNOXVILLE, Tennessee -
Three local residents are in custody Monday morning after police in Tennessee got a tip that two children were beaten and thrown into the back of a U-Haul truck.
According to the Knox County Sheriff's department web site, the incident happened Thursday afternoon at the Wal-Mart on Walker Springs Road.
After receiving the call, officers pulled over the vehicle just west of Watt Road around 1 p.m. and found three white males in the front seat, while two children, a six-year-old girl, and a nine-year-old boy, four males and one female were in the back of the locked truck.
Police say the truck was filled with furniture and people sitting on dressers and tables, and there was no ventilation.
The parents of the children, 30-year-old Joshuwa Jackson, and his wife, 30-year-old Mary, were traveling in a separate car and were pulled over when officers stopped the truck.
The group of people were reportedly moving from Steubenville to Fort Myers, Florida.
The driver of the U-Haul, 25-year-old Rocky Ewing, is charged with seven counts of reckless endangerment, while the parents are each charged with two counts of child endangerment.
The children were released to the custody of the grandmother, who was riding in the back of the truck and the Department of Children's Services was notified.
The truck was towed from the incident because out of all of the people arrested, the grandmother was the only one with a valid driver's license and she did not want to drive the truck.
The investigation is ongoing.
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