No decision yet about charging mother who left infant in car at Mesa mall

PHOENIX – No decision has been made about whether the mother of an infant who died after being left in a hot car at an East Valley mall over the weekend will face criminal charges, authorities said Monday morning.

“Right now the mother is not being charged with anything, but that doesn’t mean that she won’t be,” Detective Brandi George of the Mesa Police Department told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

Officers responded to a call from Superstition Springs Mall around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, when the temperature was above 100 degrees, about a 7-month-old boy who wasn’t breathing.

Mesa Fire and Medical Department responders performed resuscitation efforts and rushed him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Investigators learned that the mother spent about two hours in the mall “before she came out and discovered that her son was still in the car,” George said.

She took him inside the JCPenney store, and 911 was called.

“All indications right now is that … the mother did not realize her son was still in the car,” George said.

George said the infant’s family had no previous history with police or the Arizona Department of Child Safety.

The investigation is ongoing. Police are waiting for the medical examiner’s office to determine the cause of death, which could take a couple of weeks, George said.

It was the first hot car death in Arizona this year and 11th in the country, according to KidsAndCars.org.

“Whenever you park a car, especially if you are responsible for the care of a child or an animal, just look behind you, make sure everything is out of the car and that everyone is safe,” George said.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Jeremy Foster contributed to this report.

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