Video shows father who allegedly got distracted playing video games realizing he left his daughter in hot SUV
MARANA, Ariz. (KPHO/Gray News) — Body camera video shows officers arriving at the home of a 2-year-old girl who died after being left in a hot SUV.
The video shows officers talking to the girl’s father, Chris Scholtes after he left her in the vehicle for hours after getting distracted playing video games, according to one of his children.
Scholtes is seen pacing around inside the home and grabbing his face while asking first responders for updates on his daughter.
“Anything? Anything?” he said. “This is my worst nightmare.”
The girl was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said the temperature was 109 degrees at the time of the call.
“The AC was on!” Scholtes said to an officer in the video.
According to court documents, he left his daughter in the family’s Acura MDX after running errands.
Scholtes said she was asleep in her car seat and did not want to wake her up so he left her there and went inside.
The SUV has an automatic shutoff that Scholtes knew about, according to investigators.
Scholtes originally told police the girl was inside the Acura for about 45 minutes, but surveillance video shows he came home around 1 p.m. and his wife came home around 4 p.m.
When his wife got home, she asked Scholtes where their daughter was.
The couple found her not moving, still strapped in the car seat.
Text messages between the two show his wife has told him several times before not to leave the kids in the car, according to authorities.
“I told you to stop leaving them in the car. How many times have I told you?” one text from the wife said.
Scholtes responded to her apologizing in the text saying, “Babe, I’m sorry!”
“We’ve lost her. She was perfect,” his wife said in a text.
Scholtes responded to her saying, “How could I do this? I killed our baby. This can’t be real.”
Scholtes has two other children, ages 9 and 5.
One of the children said their father left them in the SUV at least 59 times and got distracted playing a video game on his PlayStation when the 2-year-old was left in the vehicle, according to court documents.
Scholtes pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and child abuse charges last week.
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