2-year-old boy found dead in a hot van at Broward daycare center, BSO says
A 2-year-old boy died after being left in a hot van parked outside an Oakland Park daycare center Monday, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said Monday evening.
The child, identified late Monday as Noah Sneed, was found just after 3 p.m. at Ceressa’s Day Care & Preschool, 3140 NW Ave., Oakland Park. The van had the name of the daycare center on it.
BSO said a call came in at 3:20 p.m. that a daycare employee had found the child inside the White Ford E-350 Super Duty van. The boy had been picked up in the morning to be taken to the center, BSO said.
“At this point, we don’t know why the boy remained inside the vehicle, but, evidently, he ultimately succumbed to the environment in which he remained inside that van,” BSO spokesperson Keyla Concepcion said.
Monday’s temperature hovered around 90 degrees.
BSO did not identify the driver.
Late Monday, a crowd of people gathered across the street as investigators circled the van.
Patricia Wright, who has seven children and had planned to enroll some of them in the daycare center, said she saw the crowd and stopped on her way home.
“I don’t know the parent, but I feel like those could have been my kids,’’ she said, as she broke into tears.
BSO told the mother about her son’s passing.
“Mom was notified this afternoon evidently after we announced the child was deceased,” Concepcion said. “She met with our investigators at the public safety building, our BSO headquarters, and the devastating news was presented to her.”
Meanwhile, a friend of the Sneed family started a GoFundMe to raise money to support the mother.
Florida corporate records show that four people are listed as officers/directors of Ceressa’s Enrichment and Empowerment Academy, which is listed with the same Oakland Park address as the daycare center. The four people are: Linda Harris, Lakiela Harris, Tammorah Jackson and Angela Elouidor.
A review of online records of the Florida Department of Children and Families indicates that the daycare center was inspected in April by the state and there were no major issues. In December, however, a state inspector found the center did not train substitute staffers in Sudden Infant Death (SID) protocols, had peeling paint, and “many of the toddlers were not wearing shoes.”
The December inspection also found the sheets were too big for the mattresses, records show.
The center has a capacity of 40, and 17 children and five staffers were on hand during the April inspection, records show.
This is not the first incident involving children who have died as the result of being left in a hot vehicle.
The father of 1-year-old twins left the toddlers in a car Friday morning in the Bronx and reported for his job at the James J. Peters V.A. Medical Center, according to news reports. The babies, a boy and a girl, died from the heat. Juan Rodriguez was arrested and charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Last year, a mother left her 1-year-son in a car at the Bird Road Shoppes, 9540 Bird Road. Hours later, the baby was found unresponsive and was taken to the hospital, where he died. The mother, Maidelmys Llaca, 26, told police she “forgot” the baby was in the car. She worked in a beauty salon in the shopping plaza.
The baby, Damon Cruz, was one of 52 children to die in the United States last year as a result of being left in a hot car, according to KidsandCars.org, which tracks these incidents.
So far in 2019, there have been 23 children nationwide who have died, not counting Monday’s death in Broward County, the organization said. Three of the deaths have been in Florida, excluding Monday’s incident, according to the organization’s data.
What to do if you find a child in a vehicle
▪ Call 911 right away. Don’t wait for the driver to return.
▪ If the child is in distress, get them out of the car, even if it means breaking a window
▪ Move the child to a cooler environment, either under the shade or in air-conditioning
▪ Use cool water or wet rags to cool them down
▪ Stay with them until help arrives
Source: Kidsandcars.org
This story was originally published July 29, 2019 at 4:50 PM.
