Foster Mom of Dead 5-Year-Old Boy Arrested After He Was Left in Hot Car for Several Hours

Police said they found the child inside the car and transported him to a hospital, where he was “pronounced deceased"

A 5 year-old boy died after he was left inside a car in an Omaha, Neb., parking lot, according to police.

The Omaha Police Department said in a press release that officers responded to a report of an "unresponsive child" at 3025 N 93rd Street, where several businesses are located, around 5 p.m. local time on Wednesday, July 10.

When authorities got to the scene, they said they found the child "located inside of a vehicle." According to ABC News, the car was parked outside of a beauty salon.

Medics then took the child to a hospital, where he was “pronounced deceased,” the police said. They added, “At this time, it appears that the child was left unattended inside of a vehicle for an extended period of time.”

In an update to the press release, the Omaha Police Department announced that they arrested the boy’s foster mom, Juanita Pinon, 40. Pinon was charged with "child abuse by neglect, resulting in death" and was placed into Douglas County Corrections.

"The suspect did not provide a statement to declare whether it was an accident or intentional," police spokesperson Chris Gordon told ABC News.

The boy was later identified as Dionicio Perez in a police report obtained by ABC affiliate KETV. Citing the report, the outlet said he had allegedly been left inside the car for seven hours.

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Per KETV, the temperature outside the vehicle on Wednesday had been around 88 degrees around 5 p.m. Meteorologists added that it would have taken 10 minutes for the inside of the vehicle to reach 100 degrees.

Employees at the beauty salon told the outlet that Pinon was not a customer. They claimed she was working in a business office attached to the back of the establishment.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services also confirmed to KETV that the child was placed in foster care and said it is cooperating with the police’s investigation.

According to a report by the National Safety Council (NSC), there have been ten children who have died of heatstroke this year and 29 who died last year. According to the NSC, on average, “37 children under the age of 15 die each year from heatstroke” after being left in a car.

The NSC also found in their research that in “more than half of these fatalities, the child was forgotten in the vehicle by a parent or caregiver.”

Omaha police said the investigation into the boy’s death was still ongoing.

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