Tennessee child dies in hot car: Report says man forgot to drop infant off at babysitter's
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Inattentiveness and miscommunication are the reasons an infant in Tennessee was left in a hot car by her father Monday, according to a police report.
That report says the infant, a girl, was pronounced dead at a local a hospital with an internal body temperature of 105.8.
The child's father, Timothy Paul Blackdeer, faces reckless homicide and aggravated child abuse or neglect charges.
Now, a report from Collegedale Police our newsroom obtained on Tuesday morning shares a tragic timeline of events.
The first member of law enforcement to see Blackdeer was Chief Jack Sapp, whom Blackdeer passed while speeding and driving 'erratically' with the infant in his arms in the driver's seat at about 3 p.m., the report said.
Sapp told Blackdeer to pull over. The report says Blackdeer immediately got out of the maroon SUV, saying his child needed immediate medical attention, handing her Chief Sapp. The report says
The child was unresponsive and limp, and [Chief Sapp] observed her lips to be blue.
Chief Sapp told another officer to get an EMS team there on the double, and put the child in the front seat of his patrol vehicle.
The report says as it happened, 3 women who were watching the events unfold were nurse practitioners, and offered to help assess the child, including giving her CPR.
One of the nurses told Chief Sapp 'the child may have been left in a vehicle throughout the day.' The report says
The current temperature outside when officers made contact was 85 degrees.
A few moments later, the report says Blackdeer "spontaneously uttered that the child was left in the car all day while he was at work."
3 nurse practitioners happened to be nearby and administered life-saving procedures on the infant. An ambulance rushed her to the hospital, where she was later pronounced dead, with an internal body temperature of 105.8 degrees.
EMS crews rushed the child to the hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. Officers arrested and charged Blackdeer, and then began to uncover details of what happened earlier in the day.
TRAGIC TIMELINE
The report says after he was read his Miranda rights, here's what Blackdeer told officers:
He says he got up at about 5 a.m. and got 3 kids together to take to a babysitter in Athens, Tennessee, about 10-15 minutes away from his home.
The report continues,
He said that he got the kids to the babysitter, carried all their bags inside, spoke with the babysitter for a few minutes and then walked to the car where he then called his wife. His wife started work around 6:30 a.m. so he got off the phone with her around then. He then continued on to work, said he didn't hear anything in his car while arriving to work.
Blackdeer was working at a construction site at Collegedale Academy Middle School. The report goes on,
When he arrived to work, he had to park upthe hill since school was in session at the site he was working. He said it was about a 10 minute walk to the job site. He said he didn't go to the car from the job site during his breaks because the extent of the break was only long enough as it would take to walk to the vehicle.
This is where Blackdeer told police he parked his vehicle for the day, while he worked at the construction site at Collegedale Academy Middle School. Blackdeer says he didn't go to his vehicle during breaks because it would take the entire time of the break to walk to it. Photo: WTVC
He said they broke for lunch around 12 pm and he went to the gas station with his boss. He said they went to the gas station at 5020 Little Debbie Parkway and he just got a Powerade. He said he did not get anything to eat because "the heat doesn't make you hungry." He then went on to say that his phone rang around 3 p.m. and it was his wife. She asked him, "where's [the child]?" and then he ran up to his car to find [the child] in the vehicle. He was asked how often he had taken the children to the babysitter and he said for a few weeks since school had started. When asked why his wife doesn't take the children to the babysitter, he said it was because she sometimes goes in to work too early for the babysitter to take the children.
Later, detectives spoke with the mother in the hospital. The report says...
She advised that she got the three young children ready to go to the babysitter first thing in the morning. She left before Timothy and the children, but had them ready. She then received a text around 6:18 a.m. from the babysitter that only two children were dropped off. She advised she didn't think anything of it and [the child] may have stayed home with her 15-year-old and 12-year-old daughters. [The mother] then went to pick up the children at the babysitter and then called one of her daughters at home to get everyone together to go to the doctor's office.
The child she spoke with told her [the infant] was not present in the home. She then called Timothy about his whereabouts.
We asked the Chattanooga Fire Chief Chief Phil Hyman how quickly high temperatures can affect a small child.
"As soon as you shut the car off and that air conditioner quits working, the temperature immediately starts to rise in that car. When their core temperature reaches 104, they can hit that stroke level. And at stroke level... death is imminent."
We spoke with child's mother earlier, who was visibly upset.
She says this was a tragic accident.
"No child should be left in an unintended car without the air on, no matter how many minutes," Chief Hyman says.