17 mth old baby dies!
PHOENIX — A 17-month-old boy left unattended inside a hot car for at least seven hours in a north Phoenix Hooters restaurant parking lot was found dead Tuesday afternoon.
FOX 10 Phoenix reports the baby's mother had planned to drop the child off at childcare before heading to work at a restaurant near Bell Road and Interstate 17.
Instead, authorities say the mother went to work with the child still inside the car.
Click here for a video report from MyFoxPhoenix.com
Police say the mother returned to her car after work and discovered the child. People in the parking lot at the restaurant ran to help when they heard the mother scream and a passerby called 911.
Firefighters were unable to revive the child and pronounced the boy dead at 5:15 p.m.
Police spokesman Sgt. Joel Tranter said, "(The boy's mother) was visibly upset. She forgot the child was in the car until she unlocked it."
Temperatures in the Phoenix area reached 90 degrees Tuesday afternoon, but inside the car the heat scorched well over the century mark.
"It makes me sick to my stomach. I don't believe it was an accident," said Michelle Fritz, 33, of Phoenix who was among a crowd of a dozen people outside the area. "I don't believe you can honestly forget you have a child in the back of your car," she told the Arizona Republic.
The baby was in a car seat in the backseat of a Honda Civic, which had very dark tinted windows. Officials believe that made him unnoticable to people going in and out of the restaurant and a car wash next door, the Republic reported.
It's unknown if the mother will face any charges in the child's death. Tranter said situations like this are handled "on a case-by-case basis."
So far, there have been no arrests.
FOX 10 Phoenix reports the baby's mother had planned to drop the child off at childcare before heading to work at a restaurant near Bell Road and Interstate 17.
Instead, authorities say the mother went to work with the child still inside the car.
Click here for a video report from MyFoxPhoenix.com
Police say the mother returned to her car after work and discovered the child. People in the parking lot at the restaurant ran to help when they heard the mother scream and a passerby called 911.
Firefighters were unable to revive the child and pronounced the boy dead at 5:15 p.m.
Police spokesman Sgt. Joel Tranter said, "(The boy's mother) was visibly upset. She forgot the child was in the car until she unlocked it."
Temperatures in the Phoenix area reached 90 degrees Tuesday afternoon, but inside the car the heat scorched well over the century mark.
"It makes me sick to my stomach. I don't believe it was an accident," said Michelle Fritz, 33, of Phoenix who was among a crowd of a dozen people outside the area. "I don't believe you can honestly forget you have a child in the back of your car," she told the Arizona Republic.
The baby was in a car seat in the backseat of a Honda Civic, which had very dark tinted windows. Officials believe that made him unnoticable to people going in and out of the restaurant and a car wash next door, the Republic reported.
It's unknown if the mother will face any charges in the child's death. Tranter said situations like this are handled "on a case-by-case basis."
So far, there have been no arrests.
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