CLINTON — A woman who left her infant locked in a hot van in a store parking lot will face a charge of child neglect, Clinton police said Monday.
The incident occurred outside a Wal-Mart on Saturday afternoon, when temperatures were in the upper 90s, Clinton Police Chief Ford Hayman said.
The 6-month-old’s mother, Sherika Green, 32, of Sierra Vista, Arizona, told investigators differing reasons the baby was in the car.
“Investigators are still trying to piece together exactly what happened,” he said. “Her first story was that she stopped to see some friends and needed to go to Wal-Mart and believed her husband had removed the child from the car seat. The second story, she said she was only in the store for a minute.”
Hayman said passers-by saw the baby in the van and felt the situation was serious enough to warrant breaking a window to get the baby out.
“I applaud them and thank them for being aware and undertaking the rescue,” he said. “Being locked in a vehicle without any air, you don’t know how quickly that situation can turn tragic.”
Department spokesman Mark Jones said off-duty Jackson Police Officer Lafayette Martin was among more than a dozen people who ultimately helped rescue the baby by shattering a rear window.
“The left rear window, which is a pop-out window, I call it, was open,” Martin told WAPT-TV. “The gentleman pulled the glass out and it shattered, and he climbed inside (and) unlocked the doors so we could get the baby out.”
As soon as the baby was out of the van, the mother came out of the store, Martin said.
“She was hysterical. She was telling the paramedics, or the people involved, that she was only going to be in there for a few minutes. She was only going to be gone for a minute or two,” he said.
Emergency personnel examined and cleared the baby but transported the infant to a children’s hospital as a precaution, Hayman said.
“There were enough facts to issue an arrest warrant for the mother,” Hayman said. “We hope she’ll turn herself in.”
Once in custody, Green will have bond set and be given a court date, Jones said.
Hayman said the charge carries up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
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