A video of a police officer is going viral after seen scolding a woman for leaving her two young children inside of a hot car for 20 minutes.
Vancouver police received multiples calls on Monday just before 4 p.m., from citizens who spotted the kids inside a car parked at a grocery store on Grandview Highway in east Vancouver.
In a video on Facebook that has gone viral, a Vancouver police officer can be seen berating a woman. In a heated exchange, he lectures her on the severity of leaving children inside vehicles on a hot day.
The unidentified officer scolded the mother, “Your children could have died. The windows were up and it’s hot out,”.
When the mom tries to interject, the officer interrupts and says: “No, you don’t seem to understand the danger you’ve put these children into. Listen to me. You’re talking when you should be listening. Your children could have died. The windows were up, it’s hot out.”
“Why are you arguing? Do you want me to seize your kids and you’ll never see them again?”
No charges have been laid, but the matter was referred to the Ministry of Children and Family Development, police said.
Vancouver police chief Adam Palmer commended about the officer involved in the incident, saying he is a “highly respected member of the police department” and a “hard-working, dedicated officer.”
“I know that he has children of his own and you have to remember that police officers are just people,” Palmer said, adding that the children in the vehicle were aged 6 and 3 years old. “We’re all human beings and everyone may react slightly differently to every set of circumstances and he was trying to convey to the woman the seriousness of what she’d done to the children.”
Temperatures in Vancouver were at about 68 degrees Fahrenheit on the day of the incident. However, the inside of a previously air conditioned car can reach up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit in 20 minutes sitting under the sun, according to the Daily Mail.
About 719 children have died in the United States from heat strokes caused by being left in a hot car, according to NoHeatStroke.org. There have been 19 reported cases in 2017 already.
Article Sources: Opposing Views, DailyMail Video Credit: IBTimes/Youtube
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