1-year-old dies after being left in hot car for ‘prolonged period of time,’ police say

vmargineanu/iStock(PINEVILLE, N.C.) — A 1-year-old in North Carolina died after being left inside a hot car, police said.

A mother called 911 for help after realizing she had left her child in her car outside a shopping center near Pinevile, a suburb of Charlotte in the southernmost part of North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County, police said. The child was found unresponsive inside the vehicle in the parking lot on Thursday around 5 p.m. local time, according to the Pineville Police Department, which has released audio from two 911 calls between emergency officials.

“Hey, Pineville, it’s Charlotte. I got a bad call for you,” a dispatcher for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department tells a woman at the Pineville Police Department. “Female caller left her child in a car all day, now stating her child is dead.”

First responders performed “lifesaving measures” before rushing the young child to a nearby hospital where the baby was pronounced dead, the Pineville Police Department said.

Investigators later determined that the mother, who has been “cooperative” with authorities, had left the child in the car for “a prolonged period of time,” according to police.

ABC Charlotte affiliate WSOC-TV reports that the mother works at the shopping center and didn’t realize she left her baby in the car until she got off work. Temperatures in the area reached the mid-80s on Thursday.

“We have many questions and realistically we won’t have all the answers right away,” the Pineville Police Department said in a press release. “No criminal charges have been filed at this time and our case is ongoing.”

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