A mother accused of leaving her 21-month-old daughter locked in a car while she spent three hours shopping in Fort Lauderdale is facing an aggravated child abuse charge.
Shantrell Erica Mitchell, 32, was arrested Thursday after leaving her daughter locked in the car and strapped into a car seat outside a BJ's Wholesale on Northwest 9th Avenue, an arrest report said.
According to the report, the girl was left unattended for about three hours inside the car on Tuesday afternoon. When rescue workers responded, the girl had a temperature of 105 degrees and was having febrile seizures, the report said.
The girl was taken to Holy Cross Hospital, where her body temperature reached 106 degrees. She was transferred to Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital where her condition improved after treatment.
Mitchell told investigators she had asked family members to watch the girl but no one would watch her, and said she forgot the girl was in the rear of the car when she got to BJ's, the report said.
But surveillance cameras showed Mitchell parking her car and manually locking all the doors in the car, including the driver side passenger door where the child was seated, the report said.
Mitchell denied intentionally leaving her daughter in the car, saying she didn't realize the girl was in the car until she came out and found her, the report said. She said she placed her daughter in front of an air conditioner and poured iced tea on her head to cool her down, the report said.
Mitchell was booked into jail, where she was being held on $10,000 bond Friday, records showed. Attorney information wasn't available.
