OWASSO, Okla. -- Video from a police officer’s body camera released Friday showed a mother’s emotional reaction when she was confronted after leaving her 1-year-old daughter in a sweltering van parked in an Oklahoma Wal-Mart parking lot.
The toddler survived the Tuesday incident although her temperature had risen above 100 degrees. She is now with her father, and the mother was detained, according to KFOR.
The incident occurred in the city of Owasso, which had temperatures in the low to mid-90s that day and 53 to 63 percent humidity, according to the National Weather Service.
Police body camera footage showed the child’s mother, identified by CNN as Hannah Secondi, wailing when confronted by the unidentified officer who was part of the Owasso Police Department.
"Oh God. Oh God. I can't believe I did that. Oh my God. My husband's going to kill me. Oh my God,” Secondi can be heard saying.
Secondi appeared to be with at least one other person at the time.
“Oh my God … she’s dead,” a woman off camera can be heard saying when the officer asked Secondi if she was the infant’s mother.
“No, she’s not,” the officer replied.
Secondi continued to cry and place her head into her hands as she held what appeared to be a receipt.
It was not clear if she had been shopping in the Wal-Mart or how long the 1-year-old was inside the van.
The toddler was rescued after a couple walking in the parking lot heard something from inside the van.
"If the baby had been unconscious or asleep, we would have had no idea,” Jedidiah Bizzell, who found the baby, said.
Bizzell and his girlfriend Chrysty Lansdowne located a door that was unlocked and saw that the child was covered in sweat. They then called 911.
"It's not like she just, you know, 'Oh, I just ran inside really quick. I completely forgot. The day has been crazy,' and she was alone,” Lansdowne said. “There was more people with her. There was no reason why the baby should have been left in the car."
Secondi was detained and expected to be charged with child neglect. She was held in lieu of $50,000 bail, according to KFOR.
