Rare News Desk
By the time a father realized he had left his toddler strapped in a carseat inside a steaming SUV all day Wednesday, it was too late. The 22-month-old was dead.
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That father’s horrific realization turned into a frantic race to revive the child in the parking lot of a busy Cobb County shopping center Wednesday afternoon. The distraught man, whose name was not released, had to be handcuffed by arriving officers as witnesses and then paramedics administered CPR, according to Cobb County police.
“What have I done? What have I done?” witnesses heard the man scream. “I’ve killed our child.”
The toddler was supposed to have been dropped off at daycare Wednesday morning, sometime between 8:30 and 9, according to Sgt. Dana Pierce with Cobb police. Instead, the child was left in the backseat of a Hyundai Tucson, and the father went to work, Pierce said. The father told police he somehow forgot his child was in the backseat of the four-door SUV, but police released no explanation for how the toddler was overlooked. The child, whose name and gender were not released, was pronounced dead at the scene by the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Wednesday’s death is the second in two days involving children left in cars, coming one day after a 9-month-old Florida girl died after being left in her father’s pickup truck, according to reports. The child in Cobb County is believed to be the 14th to die from heatstroke inside a vehicle this year in the United States, according to KidsAndCars.org, which tracks fatalities involving children and vehicles. Last year, 43 children died after being left in vehicles, according to the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences at San Francisco State University.
High temperatures Wednesday reached the low 90s, according to Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brad Nitz. Within 10 minutes of being inside a closed vehicle, temperatures inside can rise an average of 19 degrees, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Shortly after 4 p.m., the man was leaving an office in the Cumberland Mall area when he realized his child was in medical distress, according to police. From U.S. 41, the man turned on to Akers Mill Road and into the Akers Mill Square shopping center, witnesses said.
Behind a strip row of small restaurants, the man screamed for help and called 911.
“Apparently he forgot the child was in the carseat,” Pierce said at the scene. “When the father discovered the 22-month-old in the backseat, he immediately got out of the car.”
Witnesses rushed to the SUV and began administering CPR, seconds before both police officers and firefighters arrived at the scene. Several officers were already patrolling the area at the time, Pierce said. One witness, Dale Hamilton, said he initially thought the child was choking, but quickly learned otherwise.
“He pulled him out, laid him on the ground, and tried to resuscitate him,” Hamilton said.
Restaurant patrons and others in the shopping center gathered on the sidewalks, hoping for the best. It didn’t happen.
“He was lifeless, he was in the same position as if he were sitting in the carseat,” Hamilton said. “It’s something that I’ll remember for a long time.”
While officers investigated the child’s death, the father was driven away from the shopping center in the back of a patrol car. He was taken to police headquarters for questioning, Pierce said. It was not known late Wednesday if any charges would be filed.
In a high-profile Atlanta case, the owner of a Jonesboro daycare and her daughter were convicted in the 2011 death of a 2-year-old Jazmin Green, who was left in a closed van for about three hours on a sweltering June afternoon.
— Staff writer Dan Klepal contributed to this report.
