A three-year-old boy was found dead inside a hot car after his father abandoned him to go shopping.
The boy died inside a pickup truck in a supermarket parking lot in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, on Tuesday when his father stopped there after work.
The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office is treating the death as a heat-related incident.
Exactly how the three-year-old boy died and how long the car was in the parking lot are still being investigated.
Although the county sheriff’s office could not provide further details, it believes the incident began at a different location, News Channel 3 reported.
The boy died inside a pickup truck in a supermarket parking lot in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, on Tuesday when his father stopped there after work (the image broadcast on UpNorthLive showed police cars at the scene).
Temperatures in Vicksburg, a town in Kalamazoo County where the death occurred, reached the 80s on Tuesday.
If confirmed, this would be the first heat-related child death in a car in Michigan this year, according to Kids and Car Safety, a national child safety advocacy group.
It is currently unclear whether prosecutors plan to file criminal charges against the child’s father at this time and the investigation is ongoing.
The death comes after shocking police body camera footage captured the moment first responders frantically tried to save a two-year-old girl who was left in a scorching car by her father for three hours.
In a video obtained by Inside Edition, Christopher Scholtes, an Arizona father, can be seen holding his head in anguish and screaming at police before falling to his knees.
Scholtes, 37, faced charges in court last Thursday of first-degree murder brought by a grand jury after he was originally arrested on a lesser charge of second-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
“Please honey, please…” she can be heard pleading in the video.
“I can’t believe it,” she moaned. “Oh my God.”
His infant daughter was found unconscious in his vehicle outside his home in Marana, Arizona, after he allegedly left her there while he enjoyed a PlayStation gaming session.
Paramedics tend to Scholtes’ two-year-old daughter after she was left in a hot car for three hours while her father played video games.
Scholtes told police that when she got home, Parker (pictured next to her) was asleep in the backseat and she didn’t want to wake her up.
In the harrowing video, police and paramedics are seen desperately trying to revive the boy as Scholtes is seen walking around his home in a panic.
In the harrowing video, police and paramedics are seen desperately trying to revive the boy while Scholtes is seen pacing around his home in a panic.
Scholtes’ other children, ages 5 and 9, told police the boy spent the afternoon playing video games, and investigators said neighborhood surveillance showed Parker may have been left alone for more than three hours as temperatures reached 109 degrees Fahrenheit.
Scholtes told investigators that his daughter had been sleeping in the car and that, in order not to wake her, he left the engine running with the air conditioning on.
However, police said Scholtes allegedly “became distracted by playing his game and putting away his food.”