Heartbreaking Bodycam Footage Shows Cops Break Window to Rescue Kids from 117-Degree Car — and Man Is Arrested
Body camera footage shows Cobb County deputies smashing a car window to save the children, who were drenched in sweat after being left alone for 41 minutes
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NEED TO KNOW
- Cobb County Police say two children were trapped in 117°F heat for 41 minutes outside of the Cumberland Mall
- Bodycam footage shows officers breaking the car window to save them
- J’quawn Dixon was arrested and charged with two counts of child cruelty
Two young children were trapped alone in a locked car that hit 117°F in a mall parking lot— until Georgia officers busted the window and pulled them to safety. Now, the alleged driver faces felony charges.
On June 4, Cobb County deputies responded to 911 calls about two young children crying inside a parked vehicle outside Dick’s Sporting Goods at Cumberland Mall, according to Fox 5 Atlanta, KFOX 14 and KGNS News.
“I am standing outside of the Dick’s at Cumberland Mall and there are two children in a car by themselves — small kids crying,” a 911 caller said, per Fox 5. “The windows are cracked, but I don’t think that’s right. We just came out of Dick’s and I heard kids crying.”
Body camera footage released by the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office shows deputies shattering the passenger window and carefully removing the children, a boy and girl, from the back seat.
In the video, the kids appear dazed and overheated, and one deputy can be heard saying, “It’s OK… Oh, you’re hot,” as he unbuckled the young boy and pulled him from the car.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Li7JNbhiCaM?si=q19Jxlh9kDT-QqLMhot car
A handheld thermometer recorded the temperature inside the car as 117°F.
Roughly 41 minutes after entering the mall, the car’s driver, identified as J’quawn Dixon, returned to the vehicle and was immediately taken into custody. He allegedly left the kids alone inside the vehicle while he went shopping, according to arrest records cited by the outlets.
Dixon, a 27-year-old from Snellville, Ga., was charged with two counts of second-degree cruelty to children for what investigators described as causing “cruel or excessive physical or mental pain.”
Deputies later praised the bystanders who intervened, writing in a social media post: “A big THANK YOU to the concerned citizens who called 911 … You saw something and did something.”
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Dixon was booked into the Cobb County Jail and released the next day after posting a $10,000 bond. The children were checked by EMS at the scene and did not require hospitalization.
The case remains under investigation. No further updates on the children’s custody status have been released.
According to the National Safety Council, temperatures inside a parked car can rise nearly 20 degrees in just 10 minutes on an 80 degree day.
‘There’s a big difference’: Dad who left 6-year-old son locked in hot car during Walmart run gets snippy with officers who mention a 1-year-old’s hot car death the day before, police say
Jamie FreveleMay 29th, 2025, 5:07 pm
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Michael Clohessy is seen on bodycam footage during his arrest on May 26 (Albuquerque Police Department).
A Colorado man was charged with child abuse after he allegedly left his 6-year-old son in a hot, locked car while he went shopping at New Mexico Walmart.
The Albuquerque Police Department released bodycam footage of the arrest of Michael Clohessy, 45, which was shared with local CBS affiliate KRQE. According to a criminal complaint obtained by the outlet, Clohessy was caught on surveillance cameras while he entered a Walmart store on Monday by himself. The complaint stated that the boy remained in the back seat of the car. The outside temperature that day reportedly hit 80 degrees.
Police said that the boy was red in the face when they found him in the car.
According to the complaint, Clohessy told police that he had been in the store for about 15 minutes. Police believed he was gone for closer to 20 minutes.
In the body camera footage, a police officer can be heard clarifying the details of Clohessy’s alleged actions, including the fact that he did not know it was against the law to leave a child unattended in a vehicle. The officer can be heard asking Clohessy if he had knowledge of a 1-year-old baby who died in a hot car in the area just a day before, and he confirmed that he did.
“There’s a kid that died yesterday,” Clohessy said. “A 1-year-old. I understand. A 1-year-old’s a big difference.”
“A child’s a child,” the officer responded.
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“There’s a big difference between a 1-year-old,” Clohessy said, seemingly refuting the comparison between the 1-year-old victim to his 6-year-old child.
The officer replied, “No, sir.”
Also brought up by the officer was the fact that Clohessy allegedly locked the child in the car and took his car keys with him. According to the complaint — and the officer in the video — Clohessy’s explanation for his alleged actions was, “It’s Albuquerque.” The officer said that this indicated that the father knew there was a “level of danger in this city that needs to be addressed.”
Clohessy was booked into Bernalillo County’s Metropolitan Detention Center on one count of open child abuse. He was released from custody on Thursday.
Screaming child rescued from hot car in South Florida as mom shopped at Walmart
Anastasiya Motalava told police she had thought she was only away from her car for 10 minutes, but had been gone for more than half-an-hour
Graig GraziosiFriday 19 July 2024 14:03 BST
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A mother in South Florida was charged with child neglect after she was accused of leaving her four-year-old daughter in a hot car while she shopped at a Walmart, according to the Hollywood Police Department. Her charges have since been dropped.
Anastasiya Motalava, 34, allegedly left her child in a hot car on Sunday. At the same time, she spent more than a half-an-hour inside a nearby Walmart, police said, citing security video taken inside the retailer.
Hollywood Fire Rescue reached the child first and broke into the car to remove the child just before 3.15pm.
Local police said witnesses heard the child screaming in the car and alerted emergency responders, NBC 6 reports.
Investigators said the car’s engine was turned off and a window was slightly cracked while the girl was left inside.
Motalava was arrested and charged with one count of child neglect. On Thursday, the Broward County Assistant State Attorney’s Office released a memorandum announcing that the charges against the mother would be dropped.
“There is insufficient evidence to establish that the defendant’s failure to provide her child with proper supervision rises to the egregious level of culpable negligence required for felony charge of child neglect,” wrote Melissa Kelly, the county assistant state attorney for Broward County, in the memo.
The document says that the child was not harmed and did not require medical treatment, and Motalava told police she thought she had only been away from the car for 10 to 15 minutes.
“While defendant’s conduct is irresponsible, it does not rise to the egregious level of conduct necessary to show culpable negligence,” Kelly wrote. “This was a single isolated incident of what may be deemed poor parental judgement that resulted in defendant’s arrest on Felony Child Neglect charges.”
Kelly noted that Motalava would have to undergo “proper child safety education” following the incident.
In 2024, 13 children have already died as a result of being left in hot cars, according to the non-profit group Kids and Car Safety.
Earlier this month, a New Jersey father was charged in the death of his eight-week-old daughter after allegedly leaving her in a hot car “for an extended period of time.”
The father, Avraham Chaitovsky, 28, was allegedly attending services at a local synagogue while his child remained behind in the car, according to News 12.
He was charged on Tuesday with endangering the welfare of a child, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.
In late June a man in Florida was arrested for the death of his girlfriend’s six-year-old daughter who died after he allegedly left her in a car while he went to work. The girl was left in the car for approximately three hours.
Paramedics who treated the girl noted that her internal body temperature was 107.2 degrees fahrenheit.
Markise Outing, 24, has been charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and was booked into a Manatee County Jail.
Earlier in June, an infant died in Santee, California – 18 miles northeast of San Diego – after the two-month-old was left in a car for nine hours, FOX 5 San Diego reports.
On June 12, the infant’s family returned to their home around 3pm but allegedly left the child in their car. Shortly after midnight on June 13, the family found the infant unconscious inside their vehicle.
Santee Sheriff’s Station deputies responded to a 911 call at the home after receiving a 911 call around 12.30am and attempted life-saving measures before rushing the infant to a local hospital. No criminal charges have been brought against the infant’s family as of June 26.
A study by Kids and Car Safety that looked at data from 1990 to 2023 showed at least 1,083 children have died in hot cars in the US over that period.
Texas saw 155 child hot car deaths in that period, Florida was second with 118 deaths, and California was third with 65 deaths.
