Arrests made after child found unresponsive at Bradenton Walmart, Manatee sheriff says
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said two people have been arrested after deputies found a child unresponsive in a car at a Walmart parking lot in Bradenton.
The sheriff’s office confirmed posts circulating on social media that claimed deputies responded to the Walmart store near the intersection of U.S. 301 and State Road 70 after receiving reports of a 2-year-old child left alone in a hot car Sunday afternoon.
The child’s mother, Astrid Garcia Rojas, 36, and stepfather, Yuannel Montes Rojas, 37, are charged with aggravated child abuse after surveillance video showed they left the child inside a hot car while they shopped for about 30 minutes, according to the sheriff’s office.
After deputies found the child unconscious, the 2-year-old woke up and is expected to recover, the sheriff’s office said.
Randy Warren, a spokesperson with the sheriff’s office, said deputies arrived at the Walmart at 4:10 p.m. on Sunday, where they found an unconscious child lying alone in the backseat of a locked car. Warren said deputies broke one of the car’s windows and saw the child was unresponsive and overheated, with redness on the child’s face.
When firefighters carried the child from the car to a fire truck, Warren said the child woke up and became responsive. Emergency services brought the child to a local hospital, but the sheriff’s office said the child “is expected to be OK.”
“The child woke up and was said to be in good health,” Warren told the Bradenton Herald in an email Monday afternoon.
Videos posted to social media Monday appear to show multiple sheriff’s office and emergency vehicles in the parking lot of a Walmart.
Further information about the case was not immediately available Monday afternoon.
This story was originally published September 23, 2024 at 3:07 PM.
