Baby dies after being left all day in car outside Lowe’s store, NC cops say
An autopsy is being performed to find the cause of death for a baby found dead in a hot car at a Pineville shopping center on Thursday, Pineville Police say.
“The 12 month old is currently in the custody of the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office, where our investigation will continue,” police said in a Friday statement.
“We have many questions and realistically we won’t have all the answers right away.”
The child was found in his child seat in a car parked at the Lowe’s in the McMullen Creek Market shopping center on Pineville-Matthews Road, Charlotte Observer news partner WBTV reported.
The boy’s mother works at a store in the center, according to WCCB. She realized she’d left the baby in the car as she was leaving the center, WSOC-TV reported.
Pineville Police clarified later, on Friday afternoon, that the woman was the foster mother to the child.
“The mother continues to be cooperative with Pineville Police and we have extended Mobile Crisis help to her and her entire family as they deal with this tragedy,” police said Friday in a statement.
“No criminal charges have been filed at this time and our case is ongoing.”
Two 911 calls were made to police and MEDIC ambulance service from the scene, including one from the mother, according to Pineville Police.
One of those calls reported a female had “left her child in the car all day” and now the child was dead.
In a news release at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Pineville Police said the woman left her child in the car “for a prolonged period of time.” Police confirmed in the release that they responded to a 911 call and found the child in a car in the Lowe’s parking lot in the 10600 block of Pineville-Matthews Road.
“Lifesaving measures were taken,” police said in the release, and Medic took the baby to Atrium Pineville, where the child was pronounced dead. “We have a lengthy investigation ahead of us and we will be working through tonight and during the coming days.”
The baby is the second child to die in a hot car in North Carolina this year and the 37th nationwide, according to the non-profit Kids and Cars child safety organization. Nine-month-old Kaiden Logan died in a hot car in Winston-Salem on May 2, according to a news release by the organization.
This story was originally published August 29, 2019 at 8:00 PM with the headline "Baby dies after being left all day in car outside Lowe’s store, NC cops say."