A young girl died inside a hot car and a man has been arrested, MDSO says
A Homestead man was jailed Sunday after he left a 1-year-old girl in his care inside a hot car for eight hours the day before, killing her, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said. Keyner Vazquez De Leon, 22, was tasked with driving the girl from her home to a babysitter Mondays through Saturday for about a year, the sheriff’s office said. On Saturday, he picked her up around 6:45 a.m. and then drove another person to work, according to his arrest report.
He then drove back to his house in the 1200 block of Northwest Ninth Court, with the girl still inside his car, the sheriff’s office said.
Around 9 a.m., Vazquez De Leon began washing other cars at his house, according to the arrest report. Around 3 p.m., the girl’s mother called him asking where her daughter was, the sheriff’s office said.
Vazquez De Leon then realized he left the child in the car and found her unresponsive in the car seat, according to the report.
He carried her into his house and called 911. When Homestead police officers arrived, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue paramedics were already at the home trying to save the girl, but she died, the report states.
Vazquez De Leon was interviewed by sheriff’s office homicide detectives and told them he accidentally left the girl in the car, the arrest report states. The sheriff’s office said Vazquez De Leon is not related to the child.
He was booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on charges of aggravated manslaughter on a child under 18, leaving a child unattended in a vehicle and child neglect. A judge ordered him held without bond for the first charge and on a total bond of $20,000 on the latter charges, according to jail records.
Information on his legal representation was not immediately available.