A 1-year-old toddler who was accidentally locked inside the car died after her father allegedly did not let police break open the windows.
On Monday afternoon, Sidney Deal, 27, accidentally locked his daughter inside a hot car. The toddler, Sayah, was in the hot car for about an hour and was only pulled out after the police smashed the window. Sadly, the child was already dead at the scene. Police subsequently arrested Deal and book him into the Clark County Detention Center, The Las Vegas Sun report said.
The car was parked on 1700 block of H Street near Owens Avenue and west of Martin Luther King Boulevard. Deal flagged down the police patrolling near the area around 3:33 p.m. Deal told the responding officer that he had accidentally locked his key inside his running car with his child inside.
He allegedly rebuffed offers to break the windows open
The arrest report said that Deal thought that the child was fine because he left the airconditioning running. The officers offered to smash the window open so they could pull the child out of the car, call a locksmith, or a tow truck. However, Deal allegedly rejected it, saying that his car is new and does not have the money to pay for any damages to it.
Instead, Deal borrowed the officer's phone and called his brother. He instructed his brother to ask their mother to call the car insurance. His brother, confused by the call opted to go to Deal instead. When his brother arrived, he offered to punch the window with his hand wrapped with his shirt. He, however, told his brother not to do it because he can't afford a replacement for the window. Deal said the toddler wasn't fastened and was playing.
According to Deal, before he hailed the officers, his girlfriend already called his insurance company to send a locksmith, but after being on the line for about 23 minutes, Deal asked her to hang up. Apparently, he did not agree with the quoted price. By the time the officers arrived, the little girl had been trapped inside the car for about 42 minutes.
The child was laying on the backseat floor motionless, police then smashed the window open
Police spokesman Larry Hadfield told Las Vegas Review-Journal that officers tried to wait for Deal to decide but they got concerned for the toddler's well-being. At the time, the child already stopped moving on the backseat's floor. The officers then smashed the window. According to the arrest report, the child's body was already in "rigor mortis."
On the other hand, one of the neighbors who saw the incident said Deal and the police were trying to get into the car for roughly two hours. They even asked her for a clothes hanger to try and pop the lock, the Las Vegas Review-Journal noted.
Another resident believes it was a tragic accident because Deal was always with Sayah, and he could say that Deal genuinely loved the little girl. Although not home at the time, the witness' sister FaceTimed him so he could see what was going on. He claimed that he saw Deal even anxiously waiting for the police to break open the window. Deal even tried doing it himself but was told not to.
According to a Fox5 Las Vegas report, his family defended Sayah's father, saying that he genuinely believed that the A/C was running and the child did not show signs of distress.
Deal, who was charged with abuse and neglect, was supposed to attend a court hearing last Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. but did not due to medical reasons, which the court accepted.
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