An Instacart driver was arrested for leaving his infant daughter in a sweltering 100-degree-plus car for nearly an hour while he went into a Publix market on an Instacart run in Florida, authorities said.
Keita Jones, 27, was booked into jail on child neglect charges after the Sunday evening incident at a Publix, in Leesburg, according to a probable cause affidavit. He was later released after posting a $2,000 bail, online jail records show. The court docket lists no attorney for him, but court records indicate he declined a public defender as he seeks indigent status.
It all went down before 6 p.m. when a customer pulling into a parking stall noticed the baby in a rear-facing car seat behind the driver’s seat, the affidavit said. The window was slightly open and the witness could see the baby was sweating, a police affidavit said.
“The witness stated that he checked to see if the infant was breathing, and she was,” the affidavit said. “The witness advised that he then flagged down a Publix employee to call 911.”
When paramedics arrived, they forced their way through the window and noticed the infant had labored breathing and was clammy.
An announcement was made over the store’s PA system for the vehicle’s owner to come to customer service, the document said.
Police body camera footage obtained by Law&Crime shows Jones approach the counter and say that his daughter is inside the car and that he hadn’t been there that long when an officer tells him it had been an hour.
An officer tells him authorities had to break into the window to rescue her and that she was in an ambulance being treated “because that’s what happens when the child gets left in a hot car.”
“She was burning up, labored breathing,” the officer says.
“Bro, you serious, bro?” the suspect can be heard saying.
“I’m not making all this stuff up … I mean, why would you leave the kid in the car?” the officer responded.
Jones said he was not inside the store long and was trying to complete a second Instacart order, the affidavit said.
Outside while in cuffs, Jones repeated that it had been raining and the windows were down.
“Don’t you see it’s raining?” he says.
“Don’t you see it’s hot out here?” another officer tells Jones as she pulls a pistol out of his waistband.
“Oh, my God,” he says.
“It’s Florida,” the officer says.
Authorities said store surveillance video showed Jones pulling into a parking spot at about 5:20 p.m., getting out of his vehicle about a minute later, and walking to the front of the store, the affidavit said.
The baby was turned over to her mother. The infant was left unattended in the hot car from about 5:21 p.m. to 6:06 p.m., the affidavit said. The affidavit does not say what her condition was.
Jones was expected to appear in court on July 11.
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