24-year-old daycare owner Shashawna Southall, of Knoxville, was expelled from the Opryland Hotel complex on April 18th, and attempted to get into a vehicle with her four young children and drive away while heavily intoxicated, police say. Witnesses say she was being irate in the hotel lobby and was barely able to stand.
Metro Nashville Police responded to the Opryland Hotel on April 18th at 8:25 p.m. to a report of an irate and intoxicated woman in the lobby. Officers immediately found her, as she was yelling at hotel staff when they arrived. She was described as unsteady on her feet and stumbling about the lobby, with a clear odor of alcohol coming from her breath. Once she noticed police, she included them in her verbal assault that continued on the hotel staff.
Southall was given the option of staying at another hotel until she had no alcohol in her system, and then completing her return trip to Knoxville, however, she was insistent that she was getting in her vehicle at this time, with her four young children, all under the age of 5, and driving home to Knoxville. Police gave her multiple opportunities to stay at another location until she sobered up, all of which were refused.
Shashawna Southall continued to be irate and refused all offers to sober up before driving with her four children, so police took her into physical custody, as she posed in immediate danger to herself, her children, and other drivers, due to her level of intoxication. She was booked into the Metro Nashville Jail, charged with public intoxication, and disorderly conduct. She is scheduled to appear in court in June. Southall is the owner of a small in-home-based daycare in Knoxville, TN.
