The father of a child who died after being found unresponsive in a vehicle in the unincorporated View Park community near South Los Angeles has been charged with murder and was being held in lieu of $2 million bail, authorities announced Thursday.
Edwin Johnson, 40, of View Park was initially arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter and child neglect, the sheriff’s department reported.
The sheriff’s department has not said if the child was left in a hot car, but the activist group Kids and Car Safety reports that the girl is the 29th hot car-related death in the U.S. and fifth in California this year.
Deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Marina del Rey Station responded about 3:10 p.m. Tuesday to the 300 block of Chanson Drive, north of Slauson Avenue and east of Crenshaw Boulevard, after receiving a report of a child not breathing, officials said.
“Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel also responded and pronounced the child deceased at the scene,” according to a sheriff’s department statement.
The child was identified Wednesday by the county medical examiner as 1-year-old Maeve Blankeley-Johnson.
According to online jail records, the 40-year-old was released on bond after posting $25,000 bail. However, a new record indicates he was arrested again on Wednesday morning, booked on suspicion of murder and was being held at the sheriff’s Marina del Rey Station in lieu of $2 million bail.
He was due to appear for arraignment at the Airport Courthouse on Friday, according to the sheriff’s department.
The Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau and detectives from the Marina del Rey Station were continuing to investigate the child’s death.
Anyone with information about the fatality was urged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500.