Photo: Ramsey County Jail / ABCnews
A 26-year-old father from Minnesota has been charged with second-degree manslaughter after his 4-year-old son died after he left him locked in a hot car for an entire working shift.
The father, identified as Kristopher Alexander Taylor, worked a shift at the Minnesota Monthly 8th Annual Grillfest at CHS Field in downtown St. Paul. He picked up the boy from his mother’s place in the dead of night, telling her that he needed to get to work early.
Initially, he told police that he arrived at the event at about 11 in the morning and took the boy with him until about 3 in the afternoon, ABC News reports. That’s when the boy told him that he was tired and wanted to go for a nap in the car.
Taylor claimed that he took the boy to his 2017 Dodge Journey, cracked open one of the windows, lowering it about half an inch, and left him there with a video game. He says he returned shortly after 5 in the afternoon and found the child unresponsive and stiff. He rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead after doctors tried to revive him in vain.
When one police officer noticed that the car Taylor had driven to the hospital was very hot, the man admitted to the truth: he had left the boy in the car for his entire shift, without as much as checking on him once. He also claimed he’d done something similar the year prior and nothing bad had happened.
“Taylor allegedly later admitted to police that he ‘left his son in the Journey for the entirety of his work shift’ because he ‘couldn't find anyone to watch his son,’according to the criminal complaint,” the report notes. “Taylor told police that he ‘didn't think it was that hot’.”
Taylor has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and is expected in court to enter a plea.
Initially, he told police that he arrived at the event at about 11 in the morning and took the boy with him until about 3 in the afternoon, ABC News reports. That’s when the boy told him that he was tired and wanted to go for a nap in the car.
Taylor claimed that he took the boy to his 2017 Dodge Journey, cracked open one of the windows, lowering it about half an inch, and left him there with a video game. He says he returned shortly after 5 in the afternoon and found the child unresponsive and stiff. He rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead after doctors tried to revive him in vain.
When one police officer noticed that the car Taylor had driven to the hospital was very hot, the man admitted to the truth: he had left the boy in the car for his entire shift, without as much as checking on him once. He also claimed he’d done something similar the year prior and nothing bad had happened.
“Taylor allegedly later admitted to police that he ‘left his son in the Journey for the entirety of his work shift’ because he ‘couldn't find anyone to watch his son,’according to the criminal complaint,” the report notes. “Taylor told police that he ‘didn't think it was that hot’.”
Taylor has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and is expected in court to enter a plea.
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