The driver of a day care van was arrested after a 1-year-old girl who was left in the vehicle for several hours amid sweltering temperatures died, Nebraska police said.
Police responded to a day care center Monday afternoon “for an unresponsive child who was left in a van,” the Omaha Police Department said in a statement.
Authorities believe the child was left in the van for approximately five hours, an Omaha Police spokesperson told ABC News.
The 1-year-old was transported to Nebraska Medical Center but was declared dead at the hospital, police said. The official autopsy results are pending, the police spokesperson said.
The child was identified by her family on Tuesday as Ra’Miyah Worthington. Her distraught mother told Ra’Miyah she loved her at a rally outside the day care center, Kidz Of The Future Child Development Center II, as family members demanded justice for the toddler.
“My baby did not come home. Her siblings did. She didn’t. How did y’all forget her?” the child’s mother, Sina Johnson, said at the rally. “Y’all picked all of ’em up, took ’em off the van. How did y’all forget my baby?”
“My baby suffered, she suffered,” Johnson said at the rally.
Hot, humid conditions made it feel as if it was triple-digit temperatures in Omaha on Monday. The National Weather Service in Omaha warned on Monday that the region is facing “dangerous record-breaking heat,” as an excessive heat warning remains in effect through Thursday.
This booking photo released by the Omaha Police Department shows Ryan Williams.
Omaha Police Department via AP
The van’s driver, 62-year-old Ryan Williams, was arrested for child abuse by neglect resulting in death, police said. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Wednesday morning. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
The day care has been temporarily shut down “until further investigations can take place,” according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
“The protection and well-being of children is of the highest priority by the Department of Health and Human Services and we are working with law enforcement as they investigate this tragic death,” the agency said in a statement to ABC Omaha affiliate KETV.
ABC News did not immediately receive a response from the day care to a message seeking comment.
The investigation is ongoing, police said.