A day care worker will be charged in the death of a 3-year-old left in a hot van, police said.
A 3-year-old boy found dead in a day care van had been left there for possibly 11 hours, in temperatures exceeding 90 degrees, police in Florida said Tuesday.
An employee who failed to perform a head count when the vehicle arrived at the Little Miracles Academy Monday will be charged in connection with the death, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said at a press conference Tuesday.
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The child has been identified as Myles Hill. His relatives called police on Monday at about 8 p.m., when he wasn’t dropped off at his usual time.
Mina said the toddler had likely been in the van since 9 a.m. Monday, when the high temperature was 93 degrees with 100 percent humidity.
“Tragedies like this can be avoided,” the chief said. The worker who didn’t count heads is cooperating with investigators and is distraught, Mina said.
A relative who came to the center Monday night said she couldn’t understand how staff failed to realize the boy was missing.
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“How you going to leave a child in a van? Your work in a day care,” a distraught Alice Williams told WKMG-TV. “She done left that baby like that. That’s wrong. Nobody called police. The family had to call the police.”
A sign on the day care's door said it was closed Tuesday morning, though some parents did arrive to drop off their children, saying they had not been notified of the boy's death.
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