Corpus Christi police have arrested the mother of a 22-month-old child after the toddler was found dead inside of a car at Tom Browne Middle School on Tuesday.
The woman, 33-year-old Hilda Ann Adame, is being charged with injury to a child through serious bodily injury and abandoning and endangering a child by engaging in conduct that placed the child in imminent danger of bodily injury, according to an update shared online by the Corpus Christi Police Department on Wednesday.
Adame was transported from the school to the main police station to be interviewed by detectives, and then transported to the City Detention Center at about 5:45 p.m. for booking, Corpus Christi police Senior Officer Antonio Contreras confirmed.
The vehicle was parked at the school, and Adame told police that she forgot her child was in the vehicle, Contreras said.
Corpus Christi ISD confirmed that Adame works for Communities in Schools.
Police officers and Corpus Christi Fire Department personnel were dispatched at 1:29 p.m. Tuesday to the middle school, located at 4301 Schanen Blvd., in reference to an infant who was found inside of a vehicle on the property, according to a news release.
Upon arrival, they found that a school nurse was giving the child CPR.
The Fire Department transported the child to a local hospital, where the child was later pronounced dead.
Corpus Christi police detectives arrived at the scene to investigate, but do not know how long the infant was in the vehicle, the news release said.
In a statement sent out on Tuesday, Corpus Christi ISD thanked school staff, district police and other law enforcement officers who responded to the incident.
The school district asked that all inquiries about the active investigation be referred to the Police Department.
“We ask for privacy for our staff and students as we work to continue school routines, which can be of comfort during a crisis,” the statement said. “We also want to take this opportunity to ask for kindness and compassion for all involved, especially the child’s family.”
The death on Tuesday is the second hot car death in Texas and the 24th nationwide in 2024, according to Kids and Car Safety, an organization that works to educate families about how they can safeguard their children until they have lifesaving technology in their vehicles.
Since 1991, at least 157 children have died in hot cars in Texas, making Texas the worst state in the country when it comes to child deaths in hot cars. The number of children to die in cars has climbed steadily from five in 1990 to 29 in 2023, according to the Kids and Car Safety database.
More than half are reported to have been unknowingly left in a vehicle, and almost all are under age 3, the data shows.
As hot, humid weather drives the heat index up to 115 degrees and higher in South Texas, the risk of heat stroke and heat exhaustion increases, and temperatures inside of a car can turn deadly in minutes. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to follow safety tips to ensure children are not left inside hot vehicles, including making sure their child is never left alone in a car, placing a child’s diaper bag or item in the front passenger seat as a visual cue that the child is with them and asking childcare providers to call right away if the child hasn’t arrived as scheduled.
People who see a child or pet locked inside of a vehicle should not wait for the driver to return, but call 911 right away to get instructions from the operator on how to care for the child or pet.
More: Woman arrested for child who died inside of hot car on Tuesday at Browne Middle School
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Child dies in hot car at Corpus Christi middle school; woman arrested
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