A toddler in Baltimore was pulled from a baking hot car by police an hour after her father was shot dead in front of her.
Ernest Solomon, 26, was shot outside his car on March 27 in front of a busy carryout in West Baltimore and died soon after being taken to hospital.
In an attempt not to contaminate the scene and inadvertently tamper with potential evidence police did not open Solomon’s car immediately after the incident.
Police are not sure how long the victim or the child had been there prior to the shooting but reports suggest officers were first called to the scene about 1:15pm but the unnamed baby was pulled out at around 2:45pm.
After hearing a ‘whimper’ emanating from the vehicle, officers ordered car keys from Solomon’s pockets to be returned to the scene so they could open the vehicle.
‘The windows were tinted very dark when they looked inside the vehicle they discovered a baby, a little girl, who looked to be at least a year or less was in a car seat inside of that vehicle,’ Baltimore police spokesman Detective Donnie Moses told WBAL.
The 10-month-old baby, who was wearing a pink and white onesie under a black sweatsuit, was taken out of the car as onlookers and police watched.