LAKEWOOD – A Lakewood woman has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child after leaving her child unattended in a hot car, announced Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer.
Chaya Shurkin, 25, of Lakewood, has been charged with 2nd degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child following an incident on May 6, 2019.
On May 6, Lakewood officers responded to a residence for a report of a child in distress. Upon arrival, officers observed a neighbor attempting to perform CPR on a 21 month old girl. Taken to Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus, the child later passed away.
The child was found by a neighbor around 2 p.m. According to NBC 4 New York, “there was a miscommunication about whether the toddler’s mother or father would bring the toddler in from the car.”
The child was unresponsive when she was found and first responders at the scene performed CPR, but were unable to revive her.
“A thorough and extensive investigation revealed that the child had been left alone in Shurkin’s motor vehicle for approximately two-and-one-half hours with the car turned off, in the heat. Shurkin was the child’s mother. The investigation determined that the act of leaving the child in the car unattended for such a long period of time was the cause and manner of the child’s death,” stated Prosecutor Billhimer.
Assisting in the investigation was the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit, the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department Crime Scene Investigation Unit, the Lakewood Township Police Department, and the State and Ocean County Medical Examiner’s Offices.
