Investigation into death of 3-year-old boy found in hot car continues

On what was the last 100-degree day in the summer forecast, a 3-year-old boy was found in a hot car in Fort Smith Tuesday. Someone broke out a window and rushed him to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The temperature at 2 p.m. Tuesday had topped 100 degrees in north Fort Smith near Midland Boulevard and Spradling Avenue in the Stone Brooke addition.

The boy was reportedly left in a car parked in the driveway of a house in the 3600 block of Boone Avenue, police said.

More: Child found in hot car dies in Fort Smith

Grieving people gathered on the lawn as police investigated what happened Tuesday afternoon.

Fort Smith police spokesman Aric Mitchell said the department's crisis intervention team went to the hospital to assist family members of the boy. The death has been hard on law officers, he said.

"Thankfully our city has the resources available to the men and women who work this sort of thing," Mitchell told reporters at a Wednesday afternoon news conference.

The death of the boy in a hot car came on the tail end of a summer heatwave.

The death was the first one of a child in a hot vehicle in Arkansas since 2020, according to reports. There were two deaths in hot vehicles in 2020 in the state.

Sebastian County Coroner Kenny Hobbs said there has not been a death of a child from a hot vehicle since he started work in the office in 2017.

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Fort Smith boy, 3, dies after being found in hot car Tuesday