Baby’s death rouses shock, sympathy

Lolita Harper

Compassion, shock, sympathy and outrage were the dominant feelings

Monday in the aftermath of a tragedy that left a 10-month-old boy dead after being left in a hot car.

A shrine to the infant sits in the campus parking lot in the 400

block of Berkeley Court, where a father allegedly left his infant son

for nearly four hours Friday while he worked, reportedly unaware that

his son was in the car.

“An event like this is devastating, as you can imagine,”

university press director Jim Cohen said Monday, his voice trailing

off at the end of his sentence.

How many people walked by the car without knowing a child was

dying inside? How much did the boy suffer? How does something like

this happen?

Those were the questions reverberating through the community in

the aftermath. Flowers, balloons, cards, banners, candles and stuffed

animals adorned the empty parking space where the boy was found,

memorializing his short life.

Sally Kanarek, director and founder of Parent Help USA in Costa

Mesa, who has worked for years to help prevent this type of tragedy,

described the hot car as a “death chamber for children.”

“No parents intentionally harm their children, or kill them, but

the result is the same,” she said.

Authorities did not release the name of the infant or the father,

but said the father is a UCI faculty member. The 10-month-old was left in a locked car in an outdoor campus parking lot at 401 Berkeley

Court on Friday, Irvine Police Lt. Jeff Love said in a press release.

All the windows were closed and outside temperatures were above 80

degrees.

At about noon, two passersby saw the infant in the car and

immediately called for help. A nearby UCI employee called campus

police, who smashed the rear window to get the boy out. A physician

from the student health center and Orange County Fire Authority

paramedics tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the child. “It was a

very disturbing sight,” said Love, who responded Friday after the boy

was found. “It is always horrible when someone dies, but when it

happens in the fashion that we believe this child died, it is even

more horrifying.”

No arrest has been made, but Irvine Police and campus police have

questioned the boy’s father, Love said. The boy’s body was taken by

the county coroner’s office and the investigation continues,

officials said.

Joseph Lucky, supervising deputy coroner, said the cause of death

is still pending and “will be for some time.” Officials estimate it

will take four to six weeks for the coroner’s report.

Love said authorities must wait for toxicology and tissue results

from the coroner’s office to conclude the official cause of death.

Those results, along with details from police investigations,

interviews and crime scene data, will be given to the district

attorney’s homicide panel to decide what charges should be filed, if

any, Love said.

“We are continuing the investigation and working with the coroner

and the district attorney to present the facts of the case so a

decision can be made as to criminal charges,” Love said.

Kanarek said she is sympathetic, but not forgiving. She called for

an arrest, charges and a sentence of two years probation for the

father, whom she believes was criminally negligent. The parent’s love

for the child is not at question, she said, but love has nothing to

do with this case. The child is dead because of parental neglect, she

said.

Kanarek said she hopes criminal charges can be used to bring

awareness to the dangers of leaving a child in a hot car and maybe

“something good can come out of this.”

“Of course, I grieve with them, but an example must be set,”

Kanarek said. “Someone with his skills and talents shouldn’t be put

in jail, but should be out, sharing with other parents, performing a

service to the community.”

* LOLITA HARPER writes columns Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and

covers culture and the arts. She may be reached at (949) 574-4275 or

by e-mail at [email protected].