1-year-old boy
dies after being left in car
Police identify 1-year-old
boy who died after being left in car
For the second time in two days,
a baby boy has died after being left for hours in a hot car.
Phoenix
police and fire officials were called out at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday to the
Church of God in Christ near 27th Street and Broadway Road after witnesses
called 911.
Fire officials arrived and pronounced 1-year-old Josiah
Riggins dead.
Police: It appears father forgot baby was in car
Phoenix police Sgt. Mercedes Fortune said Josiah was in the care of his
father at the time of his death.
"Our initial investigation is saying
that the father forgot the baby was in the car," Fortune said. "The child
was unresponsive and had been left in the vehicle for several hours."
Fortune said investigators were still interviewing the parents to
determine exactly what happened. The baby had not been in the church parking
lot for hours; Fortune said the car had been elsewhere before the father
drove to the church.
She said she didn't know where the car had been
or why it had ended up at the church.
"Everyone is cooperative,"
Fortune said. "It's the death of a child. It's a tragedy."
No arrests
had been made as of Saturday night, Fortune said.
Family members
began gathering at the church to support the parents shortly after it
happened.
"It's shocking, devastating, just sad," said Zettica
Mitchell, who said she was a cousin of the baby's father. "You feel like
it's something that could happen to anybody."
She said she had come
to the church to support the family, and mentioned hearing about the other
baby that had died similarly Friday.
Second death in two
days
This death came just 24 hours after 7-month-old Zane
Endress died after being left in a car in northeast Phoenix for about four
hours, according to Phoenix police.
The boy was in the care of his
grandparents at the time, police reported.
These two are the first
cases of a child dying in a hot car in Maricopa County this year. There was
at least one death last year.
Fortune reminded parents to take time
to check their backseats for their children.
"We hear that parents
are saying they forgot their babies in their vehicles," she said. "Take some
time, again, to look inside your vehicle ... to just avoid these tragedies."
In October, 5-month-old Israel Sebastian Avila died after being left
unattended in a car for about four hours.
The baby's aunt and her
boyfriend had been babysitting the child, according to Peoria police
officials. They dropped the baby's mother off at work and then returned
home, reporting that they forgot the baby was in the car until they got back
in the car to pick the mother up from work.