LAKEWOOD - Police have charged the father of a 10-month-old baby who was found crawling across Joe Parker Road on Sept. 22.

Evgeniy Dorman, 41, was charged with cruelty and neglect of a child, a fourth-degree crime, according to Lakewood police Sgt. Gregory Staffordsmith. He surrendered to police at 1:15 p.m. Friday.

Police found that the baby boy crawled through an open front door, probably left "unsecured" by an older sibling, and then traveled about 140 feet into the road, Staffordsmith said. A passerby, Cory M. Cannon, found the baby and reported the incident to police.

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Cannon, 41, of Eatontown, was driving on Joe Parker Road just before 6 p.m. Sept. 22 when he saw the baby. He snapped a photo that went viral, sparking a social media controversy over whether he should have helped the baby before taking the photo.

A neighbor approached Cannon and took the baby back to his parents. The family didn't know the child was gone until he was returned home, police said.

Cannon told the Asbury Park Press in an email that when he followed the baby and the neighbor to the child's home, the door was ajar and a young child answered.

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Police said the baby wasn't injured or harmed, and that child protective services was called. The speed limit on Joe Parker Road is 40 mph.

A woman who called herself the baby's caretaker told the Asbury Park Press on Monday that it was an accident, and that she was busy taking care of the baby and couldn't talk. She declined to be interviewed again on Tuesday.

Neighbors told the Press on Monday that the child's parents are amazing, devoted people who made a mistake. The two individuals spoke to the Press on the condition of anonymity.

“It’s devastating what people are saying on social media,” she said, adding that the family is always at the park playing with their children. “I’m personally destroyed by this because I know the family.”

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A man at the neighboring home on Grandview Drive, which intersects with Joe Parker Road, said he’s a member of various community agencies and has seen tragedies of all kinds in Lakewood.

“We are all people of means,” he said. “If we felt there was a problem with the family, we would have gotten them the help they needed. We are a community that takes care of each other.”

Dorman was released pending a court date. The weeklong investigation was conducted by Lakewood police and the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

Keep checking app.com for the latest on the Lakewood baby case.

Kala Kachmar: @NewsQuip; 732-643-4061; kkachmar@gannettnj.com