Baby rescued after being left alone in car outside Las Vegas-area casino while dad gambled: Police
$5,000 Welcome Bonus
Video released Tuesday showed North Las Vegas police officers rescuing a 6-month-old baby from a car parked outside a casino.
The incident occurred on the night of July 16 outside the Bighorn Casino, according to KTLA sister station KLAS in Las Vegas.
The temperature was around 100 degrees when another casino patron heard the little boy crying in the car and alerted security, KLASreported.
Police responded to the scene soon after and found security personnel at the car with the back door open and the baby in a car seat. The front driver’s side window was rolled down about 4 inches, but the other windows were up.
The rescue was captured on police body cameras. The footage shows North Las Vegas Police Department Sgt. Becky Salkoff and Officer Osvaldo Cerda-Guzman arriving around 10:20 p.m. and giving the crying baby water as EMTs care for him.
He was then taken to a local hospital for a medical evaluation.
The infant was apparently left unattended since around 9:45 p.m. Around that time, his father — 39-year-old Mitchell Hooks — was captured on surveillance video entering the casino, according to police.
Hooks initially told investigators he went in to use the bathroom, but later admitted he went inside to gamble and said he “made a mistake,” KLAS reported.
Hooks said he shouldn’t have done what he did and he “deserved anything that was coming to him,” the arrest report stated.
He faces charges of child abuse/neglect and leaving a child unattended in a motor vehicle.
