A 6-month-old boy died after being left for hours in a hot car in a parking lot outside a Domino's restaurant in Virginia, police said.
The baby's mother, an employee at the Domino's in Emporia, Virginia, had dropped off one or two other children at a daycare Friday before driving to work, Emporia Police Chief Rick Pinksaw told ABC News Monday.
The baby was in the car for several hours, Pinksaw said, though he declined to specify exactly how long.
Officers responded to the parking lot at about 9 p.m. and performed CPR on the infant before he was taken to a hospital, Pinksaw said. Emergency room staff tried to revive him but the baby was pronounced dead, he said.
The temperature reached 90 degrees in Emporia Friday with a heat index -- or what it feels like -- of 96 degrees.
"We're having a hard time wrapping our heads around how this could occur," Pinksaw said, calling it "such a tragic situation."
"I don't understand how anybody could leave a child in a vehicle. With the way the weather is with the heat, I just think, you know, if you put kids in your car, you need to account for those kids when you get out of the car," Pinksaw said.
"These kids are helpless and they depend on their parents or their caregivers to take care of them."
No charges have been filed against the baby's mother, 30-year-old Blondia Curry, Pinksaw said, adding that the decision will be up to prosecutors.
Autopsy results are pending, he said.
At least 33 children have died from hot cars this year in the United States, according to the organization KidsandCars.org.
This is also the fourth hot car death this year in Virginia, the organization said.
ABC News' Max Golembo contributed to this report.
