A man who accidentally left a friend’s two-year-old child in the back seat of his car, resulting in the little girl’s death, is now facing charges, police say.
Daiquan Fields, a 32-year-old Annandale resident, has been charged with felony child neglect and involuntary manslaughter. He will face prosecution in Arlington.
Police say Fields was to drop the child off somewhere Wednesday morning, but forgot and left her in the back seat of his car all day. When he went to pick up the mother in front of the Pentagon City mall around 3:30 that afternoon, he spotted the child, unresponsive.
Fields called 911 and the girl was transported to Virginia Hospital Center, where she was declared dead, according to police. From an Arlington County Police Department press release:
The initial investigation revealed a two-year-old girl had reportedly been accidentally left in the back seat of a car by a caretaker. Our initial investigation has determined that a male acquaintance of the child’s mother was supposed to drop three children off at two locations on the morning of April 20. It appears he dropped off two older children, ages 10 and 15, and then returned to the home in Fairfax County, not realizing that the two-year-old remained in the back seat of the car. Sometime later, the acquaintance got back in the car to pick up the children’s mother. When he arrived at her location in the 1100 block of S. Hayes Street, he looked in the back seat area of the car and saw the child. When he discovered that she was unresponsive, he immediately called 911.
Upon review, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner could not determine where the death actually occurred. After consultation between Fairfax County Commonwealths Attorney’s Office and the Arlington County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, it was determined the prosecution would be handled by Arlington County.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Detective N. Brooks of the Arlington County Police Department’s Homicide/Robbery Unit at 703-228-4169 [email protected]. Information may also be provided anonymously through the Arlington County Crime Solvers hotline at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).