A 22-year-old man with special needs tragically died after being left in a hot car for several hours by his caretaker in North Carolina on Tuesday, August 20. According to police, the caretaker, Rogers Lee Inge Jr., 55, abandoned his responsibility to care for Dontarious Batts, instead taking him to his second job as a janitor at Cleveland High School in Clayton.
Inge, who was employed by Universal Health Care, arrived at the school around 8 a.m. and left Batts inside his car with the windows rolled up and the engine turned off. Despite checking on Batts two hours later and finding him fine, Inge left him in the car for over six hours while he continued his shift. When Inge returned to the vehicle at 4:17 p.m., he found Batts unresponsive.
Inge then drove to a local fire station in Clinton with Batts still in the car and called 911 on the way. Emergency responders met Inge at the fire station, where Batts was pronounced dead.
The Johnston County Sheriff’s Office has taken Inge into custody, charging him with involuntary manslaughter. Authorities believe that Batts died from the extreme heat inside the vehicle. On the day of the incident, temperatures in the area reached 81 degrees Fahrenheit, but inside the car, temperatures could have soared to 123 degrees within an hour, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Inge was subsequently fired from his position at Johnston County Public Schools and is currently being held at the Johnston County jail on a $35,000 bond. An autopsy will be conducted to confirm the cause of death.
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