A 17-month-old baby boy is believed to have suffocated to death after his relative forgot him in his locked car for over eight hours yesterday. The child was identified as Joshua Cudjoe. The man, 53, who is an electrician employed with Petrotrin, was in police custody last night assisting investigators who were trying to piece together the events that led up to the tragic incident.
Employees of Petrotrin, Penal, where the man is employed, were first alerted that something was wrong when they heard him screaming loudly, “Oh God, oh God”, shortly after 4 pm yesterday in the Petrotrin carpark. When they ran to see what was going on they found the man in tears, having discovered the baby boy dead in the back seat of his car. The police and an ambulance were called in. However, when medical officials checked the baby he was unresponsive. A DMO later pronounced him dead at the scene.
According to the police reports, the man picked up the child on his way to work just before 7 am yesterday. He was supposed to drop the child off at the babysitter. The man reportedly strapped the child in a car seat in the back seat and set off to drop him at the baby sitter before going on to work. Police believe the child fell asleep in the back seat and the man forgot to drop him at the baby sitter, and instead went straight to work where he locked up his vehicle and headed to the worksite.
The man then reportedly worked all day still unaware that he had locked the child in the car. It was only after 4 pm when he finished work and returned to the car that he realised the child was still in the vehicle. The Met Office recorded temperatures at a maximum 34 degrees celsius yesterday. Police believe the temperatures may have contributed to the child’s death.