A Rockland County man has been charged with the deaths of his two children after they were found dead in the back of his car on Friday, police said.
Just after 4 p.m., officers discovered a 1-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl unconscious and unresponsive in the back seat of a Honda sedan parked at West Kingsbridge Road and Kingsbridge Terrace in the Bronx, according to the NYPD.
When EMS responded, they pronounced both children, Phoenix and Mariza Rodriguez, dead on the scene, police said.
The Medical Examiner’s office will determine the cause of death.
Their 39-year-old father, Juan Rodriguez, was taken into custody at the scene and later charged with two counts of manslaughter and two counts of criminally negligent homicide, police said.
Rodriguez realized he had left the children inside his car when he returned to the vehicle after working his job at the James J. Peters V.A. Medical Center, according to The New York Times.
