A 3-year-old child found in a hot, locked car had to be airlifted to Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Baker County. Deputies charged the boy’s mother, Katie Davis, with neglecting the child.
Baker County Sheriff’s Office
Authorities had to rescue an unresponsive 3-year-old in a hot car Thursday, and deputies now say the boy may have wandered out to it because his toys were inside.
The toddler’s father had been at work all night, and went to bed around 7 a.m. The child’s unemployed mother, Katie Davis, went back to sleep too at 7 a.m. with the boy, the Baker County Sheriff’s Office said.
Davis woke up at 1:30 p.m., about 6 1/2 hours later, and found her son not in bed. She quickly discovered that the front door was open, deputies said.
She found him inside their locked car where some of his toys had been kept. It was 94 degrees outside.
Around the same time the Baker County Sheriff’s Office got the call that a child was found unresponsive in a locked, turned-off car, deputies said.
As deputies and paramedics rushed to the scene, his parents were able to get him out of the car by smashing one of the windows and unlocking the door.
When authorities arrived, they began taking steps to cool the boy’s body. He was then airlifted to Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, deputies said. He is now in stable condition and is expected to be medically cleared soon.
Detectives said that they were able to “easily determine that Katie’s failure to provide their almost 4-year-old child with the care and supervision that would be essential to any toddler for that period of time, and during that time of day was in fact negligent.”
Davis met with detectives on Friday and was arrested on a child neglect charge.
Earlier this month, a mother in Broward County was charged with leaving her child strapped in a car seat for three hours. Two weeks before that incident, a 2-year-old boy was found dead in a hot van at an Oakland Park daycare.
In 2019, 35 children have died nationwide as a result of being left in a hot car, according to kidsandcars.org, a nonprofit that raises awareness of child safety in cars. In Florida, four children have died this year, according to the organization.
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Miami Herald Real Time Reporter Devoun Cetoute covers breaking news, Florida theme parks and general assignment. He attends the University of Florida and grew up in Miami. Theme parks are on his mind in and out of the office.
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