A tragic incident unfolded in North Carolina on Tuesday when a 22-year-old man with special needs died after being left in a hot car for several hours. The man’s caretaker, Rogers Lee Inge Jr., 55, who was also an employee of Universal Health Care, had taken him along to his second job as a janitor at Cleveland High School in Clayton, according to the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office.
Inge arrived at the school for his 8 a.m. shift, leaving the young man, Dontarious Batts, in the car with the windows up and the engine off. Two hours into his shift, Inge checked on Batts and reported to the police that he was fine. However, Batts was left in the car for over six hours. When Inge returned to the car at 4:17 p.m., he found Batts unresponsive.
In a state of panic, Inge drove to a local fire station in Clinton with Batts’ body still in the car, dialing 911 en route. Upon arrival, authorities declared Batts dead. Inge was subsequently taken into custody and charged with involuntary manslaughter.
While an autopsy is yet to be conducted, investigators from the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office believe that the heat inside the car led to Batts’ death. The temperature in the area had reached 81 degrees that day. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on an 80-degree day, the temperature inside a car can escalate to 109 degrees within 20 minutes and can reach a staggering 123 degrees within an hour.
Following the incident, Inge was taken to the Johnston County jail and held under a $35,000 bond. He was also dismissed from his job at Johnston County Public Schools.