5-year-old boy dies after being left in hot car in Texas

HOUSTON (KTRK) - It’s a heartbreaking story out of Texas. A five-year-old boy is dead after being left in a hot car for hours.

An unbelievable tragedy unfolded in one of the driveways Monday afternoon in northeast Harris County.

Sheriff Ed Gonzalez confirmed a mother getting ready for her 8-year-old daughter’s birthday party accidentally left her 5-year-old son in the car.

Distracted by party preparations, his mother wasn’t aware her son was missing from inside the house for hours, the sheriff said.

“She’s excited, trying to get things together. Um, and unfortunately this time the child didn’t make it out. And and again, with the busyness of the activities that they were preparing for, uh, just, it took a while for them to notice that that the child wasn’t in the house,” Gonzalez said.

By the time the mom began searching for her son, it was already too late.

Crime-scene tape and investigators’ cars filled the cul-de-sac where birthday balloons and well-wishers were going to be Monday night.

The sheriff said the family’s regular car was being worked on, and the current theory is that the little boy was unfamiliar with the loaner Porsche.

“We believe this is a rental vehicle. So perhaps the child wasn’t as familiar with it,” Gonzalez said. “The door did not have any kind of child safety lock, uh, enacted or anything like that. So obviously immediately they called for EMS to come out here and obviously to no avail. The child was pronounced deceased.”

According to the sheriff, the child may have been in the car for up to three hours.

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