Police bodycam footage captured the moment officers in Florida rescued a young child from her mother’s Audi after she left her to go shopping.
Mother Anastasiya Motalava, 34, was arrested after her child was found in her scorching car in Hollywood, Florida on Sunday afternoon.
According to police, a witness heard the child screaming for help through a slightly cracked window. Footage showed police freeing the child as bystanders gathered around him.
It is the latest in a disturbing series of children being left in hot cars across the country. Arizona father Christopher Scholtes, 37, is now charged with murder after his daughter died in his car earlier this month.
Police bodycam footage captured the moment Sunday when officers rescued a young child from her mother’s Audi in Hollywood, Florida, after she left her to go shopping at Walmart
When Motalava left her child in her hot car, she forgot to start the engine and turn on the air conditioning, according to Florida police.
Because the mother had left a window open, rescuers were able to free her child – under the age of five – without smashing the car windows.
Authorities said surveillance cameras later showed Motalava shopping at a Walmart for more than 30 minutes while her child was in the car.
She was arrested and charged with child neglect.
Mother Anastasiya Motalava, 34, was arrested after the incident and is now charged with child abuse
With temperatures rising across the country, the risk of children being left in hot cars during the summer months is increasing.
According to NBC Miami, nearly 120 children have died from the virus in Florida since 1992. This year, that number has already reached 11 nationwide.
The incident in Florida came days after Scholtes was charged with murder in connection with the death of his two-year-old daughter Parker.
According to Arizona police, Scholtes played on his PlayStation for hours after leaving Parker in his car in 110-degree temperatures.
Scholtes told police he left his daughter in a car seat in the car because he didn’t want to wake her, according to a police report obtained by DailyMail.com.
He said he left her in the family’s blue Honda Acura SUV for an hour and a half after he arrived home at 2:30 p.m., police said.
However, new evidence presented by prosecutors suggests the girl was actually in the car for three hours, in direct sunlight, and was not discovered until his wife, Erika, arrived home at 4:08 p.m. and asked where her daughter was.