Corpus Christi Police Department
(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas.) — A Texas mother was taken into custody Tuesday after police say her 22-month-old child died when she left the baby in a car outside a Corpus Christi school on one of the hottest days of the year.
The mother, 33-year-old Hilda Ann Adame, was arrested on charges of aggravated assault on a child and endangering/abandoning a child with imminent bodily harm, according to a Corpus Christi Police incident report.
According to the accident report, it was unclear how long the baby had been in the car before it was found unconscious.
According to the child protection nonprofit Kids and Car Safety, at least 24 children have died across the country this year, including a 10-month-old in Louisiana and an 8-year-old in North Carolina, because they were left in their cars in hot weather.
The latest death from an overheated car occurred outside Tom Browne Middle School in Corpus Christi around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, police said, when temperatures rose above 100 degrees during a National Weather Service heat warning for the city.
According to the weather service’s weather report, it felt like 113 degrees in Corpus Christi on Tuesday based on the heat index, which takes relative humidity into account.
When officers arrived at the scene in the South Side neighborhood, a school nurse was already performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the infant, according to the incident report.
The baby was taken by ambulance to nearby Driscoll Children’s Hospital, where the child was pronounced dead, police said.
Adame was arrested at the scene and questioned by police before being taken to the City Detention Center. Police did not disclose what Adame said in the interview with detectives.
Leanne Libby, spokeswoman for the Corpus Christi Independent School District, issued a statement: “We want to express our gratitude to all those who responded quickly after this crisis was announced, including school staff as well as district police and local law enforcement.” Libby said counseling was offered on campus Tuesday afternoon and the district’s crisis counseling team will be on site Wednesday.
The child’s death came just two days after a Louisiana mother was arrested for the premeditated murder of her 10-month-old child in an overheated car, according to Jennings, LA, police. The mother, Hannah Faith Cormier, 32, of Jennings, was being held on $1 million bail Wednesday after being arrested Sunday.
Jennings Police Chief Danny Semmes told reporters Cormier’s baby died a day after Cormier took it to the hospital on Aug. 13. Jennings claimed Cormier left the baby in the car after he was called to work.
“Children should never be left in a car, even if it’s not hot,” Jenette Fennell, president of Kids and Cars Safety, told ABC affiliate KIII in Corpus Christi. “In the first 10 minutes, the temperature inside the vehicle can rise as much as 20 degrees.”
Fennell recommends that people get into the habit of always thoroughly checking their car before locking it.
“Our biggest problem is that no one believes it could happen to them until it happens to them,” Fennell said.
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