Woman arrested after police find six children left behind in hot car
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A woman was arrested earlier this week after police found six children left in her van outside of the Municipal Courts Building.
According to the criminal complaint, on Thursday, August 10, in the front parking lot of the building, deputies observed six children ages 4 months to four years old in a van that was not running with the windows up.
The van doors were unlocked and according to the responding deputy, the air temperature was higher than outside and they immediately began to sweat as the vehicle sat in the direct sunlight.
Deputies also observed that the van only had five seats in the rear but had six occupants inside.
A woman later returned to the van who was identified as Shinazja Martinez-Hyde and she admitted to being the driver of the van. Sheriffs then learned the woman only had a Pennsylvania ID card, not a driver's license.
Medics were called to the scene to check on the children and they were cleared. Surveillance footage from the Municipal Courts Building found that Martinez-Hyde had left the children in the van for approximately 15 minutes.
From there, the children's grandparents were called to pick them up and remove them from the scene and Martinez-Hyde was taken into custody.
She is now facing six counts of endangering the welfare of children, six counts of recklessly endangering another person, and one count of driving with a suspended license.