Florida

Jacksonville Day Care Owner Arrested After Baby Dies in Hot Van

Jacksonville Sheriff's investigators arrested 56-year-old Darryl Allyn Ewing on child neglect charges Wednesday night

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  • Jacksonville Sheriff's investigators arrested 56-year-old Darryl Allyn Ewing on child neglect charges Wednesday night.

Authorities say they've arrested the co-owner of a Florida day care after a 5-month-old was left in a hot van for several hours and died.

Jacksonville Sheriff's investigators arrested 56-year-old Darryl Allyn Ewing on child neglect charges Wednesday night, hours after the infant was found inside a van parked outside Ewing's Love and Hope Daycare Center.

The sheriff's office posted on Twitter that the baby's mother had called the center around 1 p.m. and an employee said she didn't know the child was there. Officials say employees then found the baby in the van.

She was pronounced dead at a hospital. Her identity has not been released.

"Preliminary information suggests that the kid was there from about 8 a.m. to about a little after 1 p.m.," Sheriff's Office Assistant Chief Brian Kee told reporters at a news conference Wednesday.

While the exact cause of death is still being investigated, Kee said it is believed to be heat related. Temperatures were in the upper 80s to low 90s in Jacksonville on Wednesday.

The day care's license was temporarily suspended Wednesday because it had not notified the state that it was transporting children, the Florida Department of Children and Families said in a statement to NBC affiliate WTLV.

Sheriff's officials said Ewing refused to talk with detectives. He remained in jail Thursday morning.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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