Two young children in Georgia were rescued from a hot car in a mall parking lot last month thanks to bystanders who called 911 after hearing crying.
The Cobb County Police Department released bodycam footage of the rescue, which took place on June 4, on Monday.
Officers arrived at Cumberland Mall after a woman called 911 at around 1 p.m. to report a little boy and a little girl trapped inside a hot car in the parking lot outside Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Cobb County police released her 911 call, in which she can be heard saying that the children were very young, inside the car alone, and crying.
“The windows are cracked, but I don’t think that’s right. We just came out of Dick’s and I heard kids crying,” she told the dispatcher.
Officers arrived quickly, unlocked the car after shattering the driver’s window, and pulled the children out. Both were in the back seat and neither one of them was restrained properly.
J’quawn Dixon was arrested once he came back outside and police have charged him with two felony counts of second-degree child cruelty. It’s not clear if he is the father of both children.
Police said Dixon caused “cruel or excessive physical or mental pain” to children under 18 by leaving them inside a vehicle without air conditioning for 41 minutes.
It was discovered that Dixon went into the mall at 12:24 p.m., according to bodycam footage. Officers arrived at the mall at 1:03 p.m., shortly after the 911 call was made.
The high that day was 87 degrees, police said, and an infrared thermometer they used showed that the temperature inside the car reached up to 117 degrees.
“A big THANK YOU to the concerned citizens who called 911. Your quick action is the reason these kids are safe today,” Cobb County police wrote on Facebook. “You saw something and did something, and that made all the difference.”
Dixon was booked into the Cobb County Jail that day on $10,000 bond. He posted it the next day and was released, FOX 5 reported.
