Father Is Charged After His Infant Daughter Dies in a Hot Car

A New Jersey man was charged on Tuesday in the death of his 8-week-old daughter, who, prosecutors said, had been left alone in his car for an extended period on a day when local temperatures reached the mid-90s.

The man, Avraham Chaitovsky, of Lakewood, was charged with child endangerment, Bradley D. Billhimer, the Ocean County prosecutor, said in a news release. The investigation is continuing, and Mr. Chaitovsky, 28, could face additional charges, Mr. Billhimer said.

Mr. Chaitovsky was taken into custody on Tuesday and released from the Ocean County Jail later in the day on a judge’s order. Information about his legal representation was not immediately available.

Lakewood police officers responded to a report of a pediatric patient in cardiac arrest in the area of New Egypt Road around 1:45 p.m. Monday, Mr. Billhimer said. When they arrived, they found members of a local ambulance service trying to perform lifesaving measures on the baby. She was pronounced dead at the scene, Mr. Billhimer said.

The death came amid of wave of extreme heat that has gripped many parts of the country, including much of the East Coast, for several days. Temperatures reached 103 degrees in Washington, D.C., and 104 degrees in Baltimore Tuesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

Lakewood, like most of New Jersey, has been under an excessive-heat warning that began on Sunday and will continue into Wednesday evening, the Weather Service said.

The girl was at least the 11th child to die in a hot car in the United States so far this year, according to the advocacy group Kids and Car Safety. Other children who have died recently under such conditions include a 5-year-old Nebraska boy who was in foster care and a 2-year-old girl in Arizona whose father has been charged with second-degree murder in his daughter’s death.

There have been more than 950 hot-car deaths in the United States since 1998, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; about 40 children die in hot cars each year. More than half of such deaths occur because someone forgot a child in a car, the agency says.

Michael Wines contributed reporting.