A Tennessee man is facing charges after police say he left his infant daughter inside a vehicle all day while he worked at a construction site.
According to ABC 9, Timothy Paul Blackdeer is facing charges of reckless homicide and aggravated child abuse or neglect charges. The incident happened Monday at a Collegedale Academy Middle School construction site in Chatanooga, where Blackdeer said he worked.
Blackdeer told investigators that he was supposed to drop his daughter and two other children off at a babysitter’s home that morning, but forgot to drop off his youngest child.
“When he arrived to work, he had to park up the hill since school was in session at the site he was working,” Chatanooga police said in a report.
“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.”
When police spoke to the children’s mother, she said before she went to work, “she got the three young children ready to go to the babysitter first thing in the morning,” leaving Blackdeer in charge of taking them to the babysitter.
At around 6:18 a.m., the babysitter contacted the children’s mother and said that only two children were dropped off. The mother told police the babysitter’s message didn’t alarm her because she assumed Blackdeer left the infant with their oldest children, ages 12 and 15, at home.
Meanwhile, at around 3 p.m., Blackdeer realized the baby was still inside his vehicle and started driving erratically, according to the police report, prompting an officer to pull him over.
Blackdeer got out of his vehicle and told police his child needed medical attention, and then “spontaneously uttered that the child was left in the car all day while he was at work.”
The infant was taken to a nearby hospital. where she was pronounced dead. Police said her internal body temperature was at 105.8.
According to Jan Null, CCM Department of Meteorology & Climate Science, San Jose State University, the child’s death marks the 19th pediatric vehicular heatstroke in the United States this year.
The story is developing. Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: Timothy Blackdeer/Collegedale Police Department]
