Father Arrested After Infant Dies In Concord Parking Lot
POSTED: 6:13 pm PDT July 25, 2007
UPDATED: 12:26 am PDT July 26, 2007
CONCORD -- A man who said he mistakenly left his 11-month-old son in a hot car for more than six hours while he went to work was arrested Wednesday night in the boy's death.
Danny Takemoto, 46, of Benicia was booked on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, said Concord police Lt. David Chilimidos.
Takemoto told police that he forgot to drop off the child at a day care center and instead drove to work Wednesday morning, Chilimidos said.
His wife phoned him shortly before 3:30 p.m. to ask why the day care had called her to report that her son was not there, prompting Takemoto to race out to the SUV and find the lifeless body of his son still strapped in the car seat, the lieutenant said.
The temperature in Concord reached 87 degrees Wednesday but would have been much higher inside the vehicle.
Takemoto works for Siemen's Labs, a company that makes medical equipment used to treat cancer. Company sources told KTVU Channel 2 News that the father was under an enormous amount of stress.
Because of recent layoffs -- in part due to Siemen's plans to move the company to Germany -- the office has been short staffed. The father was one of only two people capable of doing his job. With his counterpart not at work lately, Takemoto has been putting in 14-hour days and working weekends.
Sources also said that Takemoto and his wife had been trying to have this child for quite some time and that he was considered something of a miracle baby.
An autopsy likely would be conducted Thursday, authorities said.
At least 15 small children have died so far this year nationwide after being left in hot vehicles, according to a study published in Pediatrics, the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics and updated July 12. Last year, 29 children died, and 42 died in 2005, the study said.
Under California law, leaving a child, age 6 or younger, alone in a vehicle is a citable offense.
Source
I get the sense from reading the story that this was truly just a horrible mistake and that the guy isn't one of these idiots who rather than taking the time to drop his child off at daycare, decided instead to park the car and let the kid sleep. Added to this tragedy is the fact that the parents had apparently been trying for some time to have a child. What a terrible way to lose your child, what pain that child must have experienced throughout the day, and the strain this will place on their marriage, particularly if his wife blames him for the death of her child (which I couldn't fault her for at the end of the day). Just sad, sad, sad. Incidentally, the father's last name is one of Amiri's middle names, taken from his paternal grandfather who was Japanese, and Amiri isn't much older than this guy's son. This could easily have been any father or mother out there. I can't even imagine what he must have felt when his wife asked "where's the baby?"
Subsequent story this morning suggests the father may not be charged. See HERE. I'd be inclined to go along with that decision if it is determined that this was the result of an honest, albeit terrible mistake.
