(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 25-year-old Stillwater man who admitted he left his seven-month-old son in a hot car for at least 30 minutes while he went into a store has been placed on five years’ probation with an order to follow a treatment plan.
Because Shaquil Daquez Raheim Lowe was given a deferred sentence by Payne County Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler last week, he will not have a criminal record of felony child abuse by failure to protect from harm if he successfully completes his probation.
The baby had been left in a car seat for 33 minutes in direct sunlight on June 13 with an outside temperature of 94 and a heat index of 104, according to an affidavit by Stillwater Police Officer Miguel Najera.
He was covered in sweat with extremely hot skin when the Stillwater officer was sent to the 500 block of N. Main Street after two women contacted police about a baby in a car with all the windows partially rolled down, the affidavit said.
The baby “stopped sweating while I was trying to calm him down and also became lethargic,” according to the affidavit by Najera, who called for an ambulance due to fear of heat exhaustion.
Stillwater Police Officer John Stanbery located the baby’s father inside Game X Change, while Najera contacted the state Department of Human Services, the affidavit said.
“Shaquil stated he arrived at the store to go sell his phone at Game X Change,” and forgot about the baby while he was on the phone, the affidavit said. Asked how he could forget about his baby, “he stated he has a lot going on right now,” the affidavit said.
While the baby was taken by ambulance to the Stillwater Medical Center, “I transported Shaquil to SMC due to him having a suspended driver’s license,” Najera wrote in his affidavit.
The baby’s mother, who arrived at the Stillwater Medical Center, said “Shaquil is a great father, but has a lot going on right now,” the affidavit said.
When the DHS employee asked the baby’s mother if this had ever happened before, she said he had left the baby in the car one other time several months earlier at a grocery store, the affidavit said.
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