A 39-year-old father has been charged with two counts of manslaughter after his twins were found dead in his car.
Juan Rodriguez, a New York City social worker, was also charged with two counts of criminally negligent homicide after he forgot them inside his car for 8 hours.
He is reported to have parked his vehicle in The Bronx around 8 am. When he came back to his car at 4 pm and started driving off, he realized his one-year-old twins were in the backseat.
The twins were ‘foaming at the mouth’ and Rodriguez started screaming upon discovering his children were dead.
The 39-year-old father was arrested and taken into custody.
Temperatures in the city reached 86F that day. If outside temperatures range from 80 to 100F, the inside of a car can reach up to 172F, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
One bystander said: “How can you leave the children behind and forget? As a father, you’re supposed to take care of your family, take care of your responsibilities.”
Facebook photos show the father as a devoted family man. One picture shows him peacefully sleeping with the twins lying on his chest.
One internet user said: “I just don’t understand how you can forget you have two one year old children in the car, surely when you lock the car you check it and look it over (well I do) and where was the mother? no mention of her or what she was doing or even where the children were meant to be going if the father was on his way to work. Lots of questions to be answered, it’s all very sad indeed.”
Another wrote: “This is simply a terrible tragedy. This happens far too often to believe it was purposeful. Since modern cars have so many bells and whistles about front seat safety belts, maybe the should consider put pressure sensors in the back seats as well.”
A third said: “RIP poor little sweethearts.!”
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