8-year-old girl dies after mother allegedly leaves her in hot car to go to work

A North Carolina mother was arrested and charged with manslaughter after she left her 8-year-old daughter in a hot car at work and the girl died, police said.

According to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, officers responded to reports of a child in critical condition in a vehicle in Charlotte on Wednesday evening.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, the child was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead on Thursday morning.

Her mother, 36-year-old Ashlee Stallings, allegedly left her daughter in a vehicle “in the heat,” and the 8-year-old suffered a medical emergency, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said in a news release. Temperatures in Charlotte reached more than 90 degrees on Wednesday.

Stallings allegedly told police she left her daughter in the car while she was at work, running with the air conditioning on, but “she believed the victim turned off the car because she was cold,” the arrest warrant says.

When the mother returned to her car about an hour and a half after the girl’s last text message, she found her daughter unconscious on the floor of the backseat, taking shallow breaths and foaming at the mouth, according to the affidavit. Stallings used a hammer to break the rear window and then tried to drive to a local hospital before stopping at a business to get help, according to the affidavit.

“She admitted that she knew the temperature outside was 94 degrees and that she should not have left the victim alone in the car,” the affidavit said.

The affidavit says hospital medical staff told police the girl had suffered a brain herniation as a result of hyperthermia.

Stallings was arrested Thursday and charged with involuntary manslaughter and child abuse with intent to cause serious injury, online court records show.

Stallings was appointed a public defender during his first court hearing Thursday. Online court records do not contain any information about lawyers.

He is being held in the Mecklenburg County Jail on $250,000 bail, online jail records show. Her next court hearing is scheduled for July 16.

Police said the investigation was ongoing.

Amazon confirmed to ABC Charlotte station WSOC that Stallings worked at an Amazon facility and added that the company is “working closely” with police on the investigation.

“This is an incredibly tragic incident,” Amazon said in a statement to WSOC. “We are supporting our employees and making counseling resources widely available during this difficult time.

This is at least the fifth hot-car crash this year, according to the nonprofit group Kids and Car Safety.

It doesn’t take long for a car to get too hot for kids. According to the National Weather Service, a car can heat up to 124 degrees in just 30 minutes when it’s 90 degrees outside.

ABC News’ Cherise Rudy contributed to this report.