One tragedy turned into two for a Nevada family on Friday. The father was backing his SUV out of his driveway when his little boy ran out and was hit.
The toddler was transported to a local hospital, where he later died. But the distraught father stayed behind in the driveway of his Reno, Nev., home — and stabbed himself in the chest. The father was listed in stable condition over the weekend, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. Police did not release the names of anyone in the case.
Pop quiz: When you encounter a crying toddler in Wal-Mart do you: (a) Thank goodness it’s not your own? (b) Move discreetly to another aisle to get away from the squawking? (c) Inform the mom that if she doesn’t shut that baby up, you will, and then proceed to slap the tot four or five times in the face?
Incredibly, Roger Stephens, 61, allegedly chose option number three at a Wal-Mart in Gwinnett County, Georgia on Monday, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Stephens was arrested and charged with felony cruelty to a child. He’s being held without bond. The two-year-old victim sustained “slight redness to the face.”
A Texas father says he “just totally forgot” to drop off his toddler son at daycare and instead left him in a hot car while he spent the day at work.
Kesen Hu, 34, went to his job at PayPal in the Austin, Tex., area at 9:20 a.m. last Wednesday, and seven hours later, returned to the car, where he found his son dead. Eighteen-month-old Daniel had died of hyperthermia, police said.
Now authorities are arguing over whether Hu should be charged. Police told the Austin-American Statesman that the investigation had not been finished, but that the district attorney wanted to quick action. Hu has now been charged with felony child endangerment. District Attorney John Bradley said that he wanted to send a message about child safety.
So far this year, 28 kids have died from heat stroke or hyperthermia after being left in hot cars.
She apparently wanted to see what Daddy was doing. But Donald Haslem didn’t see his 2-year-old daughter when he was moving his Jeep Wrangler from his neighbor’s carport. When he pulled the Jeep forward, he realized that he had run something over, according to a news release from the Winter Haven, Fla., police department.
Laysha Haslem was pronounced dead at a local hospital on Friday. An average of two kids die each week as a result of being hit by cars in driveways, according to Kids and Cars, a safety advocacy group. Summer is a deadly season, as children tend to be outside. Click here for safety tips and how to teach your child about the dangers of cars.
A Louisiana mom was asleep when her two young children got into her unlocked car, parked in front of the family home. The 3-year-old got out, but then inadvertently locked the doors with his 2-year-old brother still inside, police said.
The toddler later died on Thursday. His mom, Hollie Ann Simon, 25, of Jennings, La., has been charged with negligent homicide, the American Press reported. Other kids in the household — ages 7, 5 and 3 — told police that they had tried to wake up Simon. Evenutally, they said, the toddler quit crying and “went to sleep,” Detective Jean Cooley told the newspaper. A family member who stopped by the house to check on the kids discovered the toddler.
Simon had fallen asleep shortly after getting home from work at 6:30 a.m. It was unclear how long the child had been in the car. The high temperature that day was 91 degrees.
Two-year-old Natalie Jasmer was the clear winner in a game of hide-and-seek at her Pennsylvania home. Family members couldn’t find her during the game on Tuesday and called police and firefighters for help, the Associated Press reported. Authorities searched the neighborhood in Greenville, Penn., near Pittsburgh, for about an hour.
Thankfully, the family dog eventually discovered Natalie. She was asleep in a drawer underneath the washing machine. Her parents have now banned the game from their home. Charades, anyone?
Photo by Chris Runoff
Another day, another daycare scandal. This one was in Texas, where two daycare operators are now behind bars for locking children in a shed, which contained gasoline, lawn equipment and insecticides.
Freddie Patek and his wife Marietta Patek, both 65, ran the facility in their home in Sealy in Austin County, where they were authorized to care for only three children at a time, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Acting on a tip, state child welfare inspectors visited the home on Wednesday and found 14 children, ranging in age from infants to preteens. Six of them were in a shed, although it was unclear if they were commonly warehoused there, or if the Pateks were just trying to hide the kids there from the inspectors.
Freddie was charged with tampering with physical evidence for trying to hide the extra little ones, and Marietta was charged with six counts of endangering a child. Fortunately, no one was injured. The center has been shutdown pending the investigation.
Josh Romo, the father of a two-year-old who was found in the shed, said that he had wondered why his daughter sometimes dreaded going to the daycare: “Now we know.”
Daniel Slutsky became the second child this week to die in a hot vehicle after being accidently left behind by a day care worker.
Daniel, 2, was forgotten for 6 and a half hours in a car with the windows rolled up outside a daycare center in suburban Philadelphia. Rimma Shuartsman, the operator of Fairy Tales Day Care and also his neighbor, had been taking the boy to the facility three times a week since September, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. But on Wednesday morning, she apparently forgot to take him out of his car seat.
Daniel died of hyperthermia. The high temperature was only 83 degrees, but that’s enough to turn a locked car into an oven. Police are investigating and haven’t made a decision on whether to charge Shuartsman.
Three-year-old Damilyn McElveen of Baton Rouge, La. died today after accidentally being left in a daycare van. The blue-and-white van was parked outside of Wanda’s Kids World, according to the Advocate.
Apparently, the child was picked up by an employee of the daycare this morning, and then left in the van all day, when temperatures were in the 90s. Police were notified just before 3 p.m. that daycare workers had found the child in the afternoon, attempted and failed to revive her using CPR.
The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration has tips here on preventing such tragedies.
Photo by Jalalspages
A 12-foot python escaped from its aquarium and killed a 2-year-old girl on Wednesday morning in her central Florida home. Shaunia Hare died in her bedroom, suffering strangulation as well as bite marks on her head, police told the Associated Press.
The boyfriend of Shaunia’s mother owned the Burmese python, but did not have a legal permit for the animal, police said. Charles Jason Darnell, 32, discovered the snake was missing, and then found the snake on the Shaunia.
The Humane Society told the AP that Shaunia is at least the 12th person to be killed in the U.S. by pet pythons since 1980. Five of those deaths were children. Last year, the parents of a 3-year-old boy in Las Vegas were charged with felony child neglect after their child was attacked by their pet python. The boy survived after the mother stabbed the snake with a kitchen knife.
Photo by Tambako the Jaguar