‘It’s 90 degrees outside’: Mom on Walmart run left 3 kids alone in hot car without AC, police say
Bodycam footage of Ciara Washington (center) being arrested in Sunrise, Fla. (via WPLG).
A Florida mother’s Walmart run came to an alarming end when police arrested her in the parking lot where she allegedly left her three young children inside a hot car.
Ciara Washington, 29, was charged with child neglect after police arrested her on Sept. 14 outside a Walmart store in Sunrise, Florida. According to an arrest document obtained by local news station WPLG, Washington was seen on surveillance video going inside the store just after 3 p.m. that day and did not return to her car until 3:46 p.m.
While she was inside, other Walmart shoppers called 911 to report that her three young children were by themselves in a hot car on the 90-degree day with the windows rolled up.
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On police body camera footage shared with WPLG, an officer can be heard confronting Washington about allegedly leaving her children in the car. In the video, Washington denied leaving her children alone in the car, which was allegedly found shut off with the windows rolled up. The officer can be heard telling Washington that “multiple” people called 911 when they saw the children in Washington’s Nissan Sentra, alone and without air conditioning, while the temperature was “90 degrees.”
WPLG reported that according to police, the air temperature was 82 degrees.
In the body camera footage, the arresting officer told Washington, “Mom to mom, it’s 90 degrees outside, you left them in the car long enough, multiple people called 911. It cannot happen.” She further warned Washington, “It’s South Florida. People kidnap kids all the time.”
According to the arrest documents, the oldest child was 7 years old and the two younger ones were under the age of 2. The report stated that one child was seen on the floor of the car, “another somehow in the trunk of the car.” Police said that the witnesses who found the children described them as being overheated and drenched in sweat.
One witness said they were alerted to the car after hearing a faint knock coming from inside the vehicle.
Police said that Washington eventually admitted to leaving the children in the car, despite initially denying she had left them alone.
Washington was charged with three counts of child neglect and booked into jail on a $3,000 bond. She no longer appears on the Broward County inmate roster.
Attorneys, family of 3-year-old who died in hot car respond to contracted DHR worker’s arrest
Attorneys and lawmakers speaking on behalf of the family of a 3-year-old who died in the back seat of a car being driven by a contracted worker for Alabama’s Department of Human Resources are calling for a major overhaul of the department following her arrest.
Kela Stanford is charged with being a person for hire responsible for a child under the age of seven and leaving them unattended in a vehicle “in a manner that creates an unreasonable risk of injury or harm,” according to a release by District Attorney Danny Carr.
She bonded out within hours of being arrested. If convicted, she could serve up to 20 years.
“DHR is supposed to be the safety net, said attorney Courtney French. “That net is broken.”
French called into question the department’s hiring practices, asking how they could have hired someone whose vehicle allegedly has an illegal window tint to transport children.
“Law enforcement said when K.J. died and they went to this lady’s house, the worker there had illegal tint that was on her car that was so dark that if you were standing next to the car, you couldn’t even see that K.J. was in the back seat.”
French said he and the family are currently awaiting a toxicology screening for Stanford, saying that one of the places she stopped at while driving around was a smoke shop.
“What did she buy? You know, was she on some sort of substance herself while she had K.J. in her custody? So, that will take some time, just going through the forensic process. But we do want to honor that part of the investigation, and allow law enforcement to conduct a full, complete and thorough investigation,” said French.
French was joined by Alabama Rep. Patrick Sellers, who called for a full investigation into DHR’s policies.
“We must ask the hard questions. How did this happen? On the watch of those entrusted with CJ’s care? Where was the oversight? What protocols were broken or worse, never existed? This is not just about one individual. It’s about a system that failed us, that failed K.J., that is why I’m calling for even just a full investigation into the policies and practices of the Alabama Department of Human Resources,” said Sellers.
Ke’Torrius Starkes Jr., of Bessemer, was found in a hot car outside a home on Pine Tree Drive, according to the coroner. The child had been left alone in the car between 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. and was pronounced dead at 6:03 p.m.
Tuesday was a First Warning Impact Day, with the heat index in the triple digits.
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Family told WVTM 13 that his foster care family drops him off at daycare where a DHR worker would pick him up for supervised visits with his family.
Hearst Owned
“A child in DHR custody was being transported by a contract provider when the incident occurred,” a spokesperson for Alabama DHR said in a statement. “The provider has terminated their employee. Due to confidentiality, DHR cannot comment further regarding the identity of the child or the exact circumstances.”
Video below: Attorney says audio recording captures contracted DHR worker apologizing over 3-year-old’s death
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The child’s father said he was going to remember his son and was so proud of his intelligence. He knew his colors and loved to count.
3-year-old Bessemer foster child dead after being left in hot car at DHR worker’s house for 5 hours
A 3-year-old Alabama boy died Tuesday when he was left alone inside a hot vehicle in Birmingham for roughly five hours.
The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office identified the child as Ketorrius “KJ” Starkes Jr. He lived in Bessemer.
Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said Ketorrius was left alone in the vehicle in the 1500 block of Pine Tree Drive in Birmingham.
The vehicle was in the driveway of a private residence. It was not running and the windows were rolled up.
Yates said the boy was in the car from 12:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. He was pronounced dead on the scene at 6:03 p.m.
Ketorrius is the first hot car death in Alabama in 2025. He is at least the 16th child to die in a hot car nationwide this year, according Kids and Car Safety.
According to Ketorrius’s aunt, Brittney Debruce, the boy is in DHR custody and lives in a foster home.
When the foster parent went to pick the child up from daycare, he was not there, Debruce said.
Debruce said a transport driver – possibly from a company that contracts with DHR for transporting children to visitations – picked up Keterriuos to take him to DHR in Bessemer for a scheduled visit with his father.
When that visit was over, she said, Ketorrius was never returned to daycare.
Debruce said Birmingham police found her nephew inside the car. They and DHR then notified Debruce’s sister that the child had died.
The parents and other family members are beyond distraught.
“We don’t know what’s going on,” Debruce said.
The Alabama Department of Human Resources provided this statement to AL.com:
“A child in DHR custody was being transported by a contract provider when the incident occurred. The provider has terminated their employee. Due to confidentiality, DHR cannot comment further regarding the identity of the child or the exact circumstances.”
The death is under investigation by Birmingham police.
According to the family’s attorney, Courtney French, a DHR-affiliated worker employed through The Covenant Services, picked up Ketorrius from daycare at 9 a.m. for a supervised visit with his biological father.
After the visit ended around 11:30 a.m., the worker stopped to pick up food for her family and shopped at a tobacco store, French said.
The worker then returned to her home and left Ketorrius in the parked car for more than five hours.
“This is a heartbreaking and preventable tragedy.” French said.
“With the current extreme outside temperatures and the heat index of 108 degrees, the interior temperature of the car where KJ was trapped likely exceeded 150 degrees.”
“This is a parent’s worst nightmare. Our baby should be alive,” the child’s parents said in a statement provided by French.
