A “tragic accident” led to the death of an 8-month-old boy who was left in a car outside an Ohio Wal-Mart, officials said.
Macedonia police discovered the child after receiving a report of an unresponsive baby around 5:30 pm ET Wednesday, the department said in a news release.
A parent or guardian who was driving the SUV earlier was supposed to drop the baby off at day care along with the family’s three other children about 8 a.m. ET. However, that driver left the day care without noticing that the boy was still in his car seat in the third row seat of the Buick Rendezvous, police told NBC affiliate WKYC. The driver then took the car back to the family's Garfield Heights home.
About two hours later, the boy's grandmother took the vehicle and then unwittingly drove the boy to the Wal-Mart where she worked. She parked the car, inadvertently leaving the boy in the back seat, the station reported.
The grandmother didn’t discover the child until hours later when she received a call from his mother saying that he hadn’t been at day care.
Investigators are looking into the incident but say it appears to “a tragic accident and not a matter of foul play,” according to police.