Arizona father arrested after leaving his four children in a hot car
PHOENIX (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - Last week, Phoenix police officers found four children left inside a hot car, which led to their father being arrested.
A shocking scene in Phoenix Thursday afternoon. Body camera footage showed police officers finding four children under the age of ten left inside of a hot car. The windows were rolled up and the car was off.
"It's unfathomable being honest, to be honest with you," said Sgt. Rob Scherer with the Phoenix Police Department.
Sgt. Scherer says someone called 911 reporting the dangerous situation. When officers arrived, they found three of the kids inside the car, and one outside. They were in distress.
"Obviously, there was elements of kind of heat exposure, you know, pink, red skin, sweating, crying, that kind of thing that kind of showed officers kind of the severity of where this could have gone," Scherer shared.
Fire crews responded too, and the internal temperature of all of the kids was 100 degrees. Inside the car, even after the doors had been opened by officers for several minutes, it was 125 degrees.
"In the utmost precaution, each child was transported nearby hospital just to kind of be observed and looked over," Scherer added.
The next question: Where was their guardian? It turns out their father, 38-year-old Ascencio Largo, had left them in the heat to visit this adult shop, and police say he had been inside for close to an hour.
"Officers originally saw him and asked him, 'Hey, is that your car?' And he denied it being his car. That's troublesome. Also, obviously, once it's clear those are his kids and and that's...that's dad," Scherer said.
Miraculously, the four small children are expected to be okay, but Largo has been booked on eight felony charges.
"They're inside of a car for upwards of an hour, which I can't even imagine. What they, time wise, felt it to be really hot. Elements of heat affecting them. And then you're also now seeing officers put your dad in custody. I mean, that's the trauma associated with that is just profound," Scherer expressed.
As the Department of Child Safety conducts its own investigation, police find themselves once again urging parents to never leave their kids inside the car.
