SHREVEPORT, La. - A Hammond man has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder after leaving his 21-month-old daughter in a hot car on Sunday.
Shreveport has seen similar arrests of people leaving kids in cars in the toasty Louisiana summers.
The last time Shreveport saw a death like the one in Hammond was in 2021. Meagan Everett pleaded guilty in January to negligent homicide after her one-year-old son died from being left in a car seat for at least 4 hours.
Cpl. Chris Bordelon with the Shreveport Police Department explained just how fast the inside of a car can heat up.
"So it could be 90 degrees outside, and within 15 minutes you're looking at 120-plus-degree temperatures inside of that vehicle, and that can become deadly very quickly for a small child," said Bordelon.
Bordelon said SPD often responds to calls about children left in hot cars.
"Every summer we do see child-in-car complaints, whether it be citizens calling in or parents calling in because they've accidentally locked their child in the car, and in all of those cases, we're usually able to get there and rectify that situation quickly," said Bordelon.
Bordelon said SPD tries its best to teach community members about what could be a fatal outcome.
"Over the past 20 years, our state has had upwards of 40 child deaths involving hot car incidents. We want to do everything we can to educate parents and guardians about the dangers of leaving children in hot cars and just how quickly leaving a child in a hot car can become deadly," said Bordelon.
There are consequences for those who do it.
"Just leaving the child in the car can lead to a criminal abandonment charge, and if the child suffers any injuries, that would automatically upgrade the charge to felony-type charges in these cases. So we really want to encourage families to do what they can, keep children out of hot cars, and watch out for your little ones," said Bordelon.
LSU engineering students recently created a device that could reduce hot car deaths. It's an alarm and fob that would alert if the person holding the fob moves too far away from the car seat while a baby is in it.