On the day of the incident, temperatures reached 96\u00b0F, and the car’s interior likely rose above 150\u00b0F. KJ, a young child, was tragically found unresponsive in the vehicle and pronounced dead at 6:03 PM.<\/p>\n
KJ had been placed in the temporary custody of Alabama\u2019s Department of Human Resources (DHR) due to concerns about drug use in his home. That morning, a contracted employee from Covenant Services Inc. picked him up from daycare for a supervised visit with his father. Afterward, the employee allegedly ran personal errands and left KJ in the car outside their home.<\/p>\n
KJ\u2019s aunt and foster parent, Brittney Debruce, discovered he was missing when she arrived to pick him up. She and responding officers later found him in the vehicle. The family\u2019s attorney, Courtney French, called the death \u201ca heartbreaking and preventable tragedy,\u201d saying the system meant to protect KJ had failed him.<\/p>\n
DHR confirmed the child was in the care of a contracted provider, who has since fired the employee. Police say the employee is cooperating with the investigation, and no charges have been filed so far. KJ\u2019s autopsy is complete, and his funeral is scheduled for Saturday, August 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the day of the incident, temperatures reached 96\u00b0F, and the car’s interior likely rose above 150\u00b0F. KJ, a young child, was tragically found unresponsive in the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n