The family of 3-year-old Ke’Torrius “K.J.” Starkes Jr. is remembering the little boy as a “joyful,” “brilliant” “happy boy who loved life, who would light up any room that he would enter into.”

The toddler died after he was trapped inside a hot car while in the custody of a worker contracted by the Alabama Department of Human Resources, the state’s child protective services agency, according to the Jefferson County Medical Examiner’s Office and the state Department of Human Resources. The Birmingham Police Department is investigating the death.

K.J. had been left inside a car parked outside a home in Birmingham for several hours during the middle of the day on Tuesday, the Jefferson County Medical Examiner’s Office said.

  • Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world
    1421·
    3 days ago

    This is fucking infuriating. Pure rage.

    I remember being in a car too long around the age of 5/6. I’m middle aged, I still remember due to the mild trauma.

    Fuck. This poor kid died suffering, crying, screaming. Until he probably passed out due to exhaustion and dehydration.

    FUCK.

    Those involved deserve prison. Long sentences.

    • forrgott@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      66·
      3 days ago

      Let’s not forget that this was after he had his entire concept of safety and security shattered due to being taken away from his family.

      This involved have never deserved the air they breathe.

    • wheezy@lemmy.ml
      9·
      3 days ago

      This is one of those cases where I wish we had old time “punishment fits the crime” laws.

      Don’t get me wrong. If we’re gonna have a systemic and capital punishment conversation I am absolutely for systems that rehabilitate and work towards reintegrating criminals into society. Failures like this are systemic failures that should really not be only blamed on the individual idiot that did this. We shouldn’t have a system that can literally lose a kid for hours. There should be no way for this to even happen. Even IF the person that did this specifically meant to kill the kid (which I hope not).

      Having said that. My monkey brain wants the person that did this to have to sit in a hot car until they die.

    • Avicenna@lemmy.world
      12·
      3 days ago

      yea ideally not just the contracted worker, anyone involved in setting up such a soulless shit piece of a system