Illustrative image with an ambulance. Photo: Bigappplestock | Dreamstime.com
The Birmingham Police Department, Alabama, investigates the death of a 3-year-old boy who was stuck in a hot car while in custody An employee contracted by the Alabama Human Resources Department, the Child Protection Services Agency in this US state, according to the Legal Medicine Bureau of Jefferson County and the Human Resources Department, CNN reports.
Keorrius “KJ” Starkes Jr. was left in a car parked in front of a house in Birmingham, Alabama, for several hours in the middle of Tuesday, said the Legal Medicine Office of Jefferson.
It was humidity, with temperatures between 34 and 36 degrees Celsius, between 12:30 and 5:30 pm, when KJ was left alone in the car. The values of the heat index, which consider the temperature and humidity to determine how it feels in the shade, vary between 38 and 39 degrees Celsius, according to CNN meteorologists.
The family says that a worker, employed through a company contracted by the Human Resources Department of Alabama, took KJ from the nursery on Tuesday, at 9:00, for a supervised meeting with his father. The visit ended around 11:30, says Courtney French, family lawyer.
“Instead of bringing KJ back to the nursery immediately, the worker has done numerous personal tasks with KJ set in a car chair in his car,” French told CNN.
The boy stayed over five hours in the car
According to the chronology provided by the family lawyer, the employee left home at 12:30, leaving KJ “tied in the vehicle, with all the windows raised and the engine stop”. The boy stood in the parked car in front of the house for more than five hours before the Christian staff would contact her to ask why KJ did not return, French said.
“The employee told the law enforcement authorities that only then did he realize that he was still KJ in her vehicle,” added the lawyer, mentioning that at that time the emergency service 911 was called. KJ's death was declared at 18:03, according to forensic doctors.
The Human Resources Department (DHR) in Alabama said that the incident took place while the child was “in DHR custody” and “was transported by a contract supplier”. The department mentioned that the contract supplier fired the respective employee.
“Due to confidentiality, DHR cannot comment on the child's identity or exact circumstances,” the agency said in a statement issued on Saturday.
It is the first death that takes place in a hot car in Alabama, but at the national level is at least 16th in 2025, said Amber Rollins, the director of Kids and Car Safety, a non-profit organization dedicated to the problem.
