A 9-year-old girl has died after police say her mother allegedly left her in a hot car under the brutal Texas summer sun and went to work… for eight hours.
Back on Tuesday, the police were called at about 2:06 p.m. local time on a report of an unresponsive child inside a white Toyota Camry on Mayo Shell Road in the Houston-area city of Galena Park, Texas. Once there, first responders found a girl later to be determined to be 9 inside the car, struggling, and in dire need of medical attention.
They rushed her to a local hospital, but sadly, it was too late. The little girl was pronounced dead at the hospital, per a police press release shared this week on Facebook.
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At a press conference on the matter, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the girl was allegedly left inside the car by her 36-year-old mother in the parking lot of the manufacturing plant where the mom works. The mom had left the windows partially rolled down in the vehicle, Gonzalez said. She also left water inside for the little girl to remain alone during the mom’s 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. work shift.
Cops said it’s not yet clear whether the woman was able to come back and check on the little girl throughout the day. They also don’t know whether the girl was able to exit the car at any point before the tragedy. For what it’s worth, Gonzalez said the car had been backed up into a spot in the parking lot, and there was a sun visor over the car’s windshield. That, he said, may have prevented passersby form being able to view the little girl inside the car once she fell into distress.
Stricken by the tragedy, Gonzalez said at the press conference:
“I’m extremely upset and disappointed that a 9-year-old, beautiful little girl has lost her life by no fault of her own. There’s never an excuse to leave a child unattended. … Any amount of time can be very dangerous and even fatal for a small child.”
The woman was originally detained by cops, according to ABC News, but she was later released pending the results of the little girl’s autopsy. In the meantime, multiple outlets say detectives have continued to interview her in a bid to try to understand why she chose to leave the child inside the car for that long a period of time.
Gonzalez acknowledged that it’s possible the woman did not have access to to any child care, was put in a difficult spot, and made a very bad choice. He said:
“We can be sympathetic to the fact that there’s hardship, you know, it’s not lost on me that there’s people going through tough times. Maybe she has to make ends meet and keep, you know, food on the table. … [But] the point is the risk of death or harm, there’s just no reconciling that in my mind.”
No kidding.
You can see more (below):
What an awful tragedy.
Our hearts go out to that poor little girl.
[Image via WENN]
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