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Parenting

Texas father left five kids in hot car without air conditioning: cops

By
Joshua Rhett Miller
Published Aug. 10, 2022
Updated Aug. 10, 2022, 12:17 p.m. ET

A Texas father left his five children inside a sweltering car without air conditioning as temps soared into triple digits, police said.

Jose Leal, 29, was arrested after someone in southeast Fort Worth reported seeing his five young kids – ranging in age from 1 through 6 – inside a vehicle late Sunday, police said.

Responding officers then saw a man in a yard and approached Leal’s parked vehicle as the engine was still running and had its windows rolled up — but without air-conditioning turned on. Several children abandoned inside the ride appeared to be sleeping or passed out, police said.

The five kids were left alone as temps in Fort Worth soared to 100 degrees on Sunday, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. They were quickly removed from the sweltering car and transported to air-conditioned police vehicles, authorities said.

Paramedics took Leal’s five children to a nearby hospital, where they were treated for heat exhaustion. Investigators did not indicate how long they believe the kids were inside the car. Leal was later charged with five counts of abandonment/endangerment to a child with bodily injury, police said.

Jose Leal, 29, was arrested after someone in southeast Fort Worth reported seeing his five young kids – ranging in age from 1 through 6 – inside a vehicle late Sunday, police said.
Jose Leal, 29, was arrested after someone in southeast Fort Worth reported seeing his five young kids – ranging in age from 1 through 6 – inside a vehicle late Sunday, police said. Tarrant County Sheriff's Office

The condition of the five children is unclear, but temps inside cars during summer months can rise dramatically in just minutes, paramedics told KWTX.

“In temperatures like were seeing right now in North Texas, the inside of that vehicle in a matter of minutes can go to 140, 150 degrees, which means that the body temperature of the child inside that car is going to go to 104, 105 degrees,” Matt Zavadsky of MedStar told the station. “And the child’s vital organs – the brain, the heart, the kidneys – cannot function at that level of temperature.”

Leal, of Fort Worth, was taken into custody at Tarrant County Jail on $1,000 bond, KDFW reported Monday. He was no longer listed in custody as of Wednesday. It’s unclear if he’s hired an attorney who could comment on his behalf and attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.