As soon as Sheletta Brundidge heard the news about the drowning of a 4-year-old boy who was autistic and nonverbal, she knew had to do something to help.

Brundidge, a Cottage Grove mother of three children with autism, has long relied on keyless smart door locks as a way to keep her children safe, and she wanted other parents of children with autism to learn about the locks and have a chance to get one for free.

“I was trying to think of what I could do to lift their spirits while educating parents about how to keep their special needs kids safe in the home,” she said of last week’s tragedy in Hopkins.

A close up of an interior door lock that has been installed in Sheletta Brundidge’s house in Cottage Grove, seen June 17, 2024. As a mother of children on the autism spectrum, Brundidge said the locks provide an added layer of protection for children who are prone to wandering. (Courtesy of Sheletta Brundidge)

Brundidge, who runs ShelettaMakesMeLaugh.com, reached out to Amazon, the online retailer, which is donating locks that will be given away at a community event from 1-3 p.m. Tuesday at Hopkins City Hall. The free event also includes an ice cream truck, face painting and book giveaway.

A volunteer assisting with the search effort found Waeys Ali Mohamed, 4, who was last seen June 9, in Minnehaha Creek around 10:40 a.m. June 10, about 500 yards downstream from his family’s apartment building in Hopkins, officials said.

“My heart just breaks for any family who loses a child, especially a family who has a child with autism who wanders or elopes from the home because I know how scary it can be,” Brundidge said. “… If I had that mother sitting in front of me right now, I would hug her and tell her, ‘It is not your fault. You did not do anything wrong. Don’t judge yourself too harshly because you know, this is what these children do, and we are doing everything within our knowledge and power to protect them.’”

When Brundidge’s son Daniel was 4 or 5 years old, he wandered outside on a below-zero night in the middle of winter, she said.

“The doors were locked and they were still closed, but I couldn’t find him anywhere in the house,” she said. “He found some kind of way to get out of the house, and I couldn’t figure out how. Well, he went out the sliding glass door in the back. He was in the back and he was on a trampoline jumping on top of the ice. It was like minus-8 degrees outside. My heart was pounding because I literally had picked up the phone to call 911. It wasn’t nothing but Jesus that had me look out there.”

Brundidge started looking for additional safety measures and discovered the interior keyless door locks on Amazon. When she recently decided to have a free giveaway of the locks, she contacted officials at the Amazon facility in Shakopee. They immediately signed on to help, she said.

The keyless door locks also are a great option for people caring for people with dementia, she said.

“I had somebody tell me last week that they were getting them for her grandmother who has dementia and is always wandering outside the home,” she said. “People did not know that these were available. Fences are expensive.”

The locks can be programmed with codes that are 6 to 15 digits long. Each lock has a bypass key, so “there is a way to get in and out of the lock using a key in case of a fire,” she said.

Brundidge is an Emmy-winning comedian and activist. She runs ShelettaMakesMeLaugh.com, a podcast network which features weekly shows hosted by Black subject experts from Minnesota.

She also is the author of three children’s books about autism, including “Brandon Spots His Sign,” which was published in 2022, “Cameron Goes to School” and “Daniel Finds His Voice.”

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