An infant is dead after her foster mother allegedly left her in the car at a Baltimore church.
Baltimore police said the woman worked at Shiloh Baptist Church and was going to drop her foster daughter, Paris Bena Hall, at the day care next door.
But then, the foster mother got distracted.
“She saw someone she wanted to talk to in the parking lot, so she began speaking with that person,” Cpl. John Watcher says. “When she returned to her vehicle, she found the child in cardiac arrest. She immediately called 911 and began CPR.”
The woman’s efforts were not enough. Paris was pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
Though the homicide unit is investigating Paris’ death, the Washington Post reports it is not being treated as such.
Friends and neighbors of the woman say she is devastated.
“Obviously you feel sorry for the child,” Neighbor Nina Sonin tells WBALTV. “It’s an innocent child. But I feel sorry for (the woman), because I can’t imagine how broken-hearted she is, and I know that she was extremely distraught. I talked to her sister, extremely distraught.”
