LAS VEGAS (WSVN) — Police in Las Vegas have arrested a man after his young daughter died in a hot car.
According to Fox 5 Las Vegas, police arrested 27-year-old Sidney Deal.
Police said Deal was leaving his girlfriend’s home and had his 21-month-old daughter in the backseat, but went back inside to grab his phone.
When he returned, he realized he was locked outside the car. However, police said he told his family the air conditioner in the car was still running, so she would be fine.
Police said an officer and Deal’s brother both asked to break the window, but police said Deal refused, saying the car was brand new and he didn’t have the money to repair a broken window.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Deal’s girlfriend told officers that during the ordeal, she spent 23 minutes on hold with a locksmith but that Deal didn’t like the price the locksmith gave so he denied the services.
According to an arrest report obtained by the newspaper, Deal also told police he thought the child was fine because the air conditioning was on but admitted she stopped moving on the floor of the backseat, which he believed to have meant she had gone to sleep.
Fox 5 Las Vegas reports that ultimately, police broke the window anyway, but by then, it was too late, and Deal’s daughter was pronounced dead at the scene.
Deal has been arrested on felony child abuse charges.
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