{"id":148372,"date":"2025-08-01T12:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/?p=148372"},"modified":"2025-08-01T12:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:36:12","slug":"alabama-3-year-old-left-to-die-in-hot-car-while-child-protective-services-worker-ran-personal-errands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/alabama-3-year-old-left-to-die-in-hot-car-while-child-protective-services-worker-ran-personal-errands\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama 3-year-old left to die in hot car while Child Protective Services worker ran &#8216;personal errands&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>by<\/em><\/span> <span style=\"color: #006699;\"><strong>WorldTribune<\/strong> <span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>Staff \/ <\/em><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/category\/breaking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #006699;\"><strong>247 Real News<\/strong><\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em> August 1, 2025 <\/em> <\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>An Alabama 3-year-old who was taken from his parents by Child Protective Services (CPS) died after being left in a hot car for hours by a contractor for CPS.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_148373\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-148373\" style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-148373\" src=\"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/kstarkes.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"223\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-148373\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ke\u2019Torrius Starkes Jr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The CPS worker allegedly took the child for a visit with his father in Birmingham, then ran \u201cpersonal errands\u201d for several hours, forgetting the boy was in the car in the brutal Alabama heat, People.com reported.<\/p>\n<p>The boy, identified as Ke\u2019Torrius Starkes Jr., was in the custody of the Department of Human Services at the time. Courtney French, a lawyer for the family, told People.com: \u201cThe very system that is in place for his protection was the system that led to his death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>State officials revealed the boy was left inside the car &#8220;while in the care of a third-party contracted worker through the Department of Human Resources.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to the lawyer, the worker was employed to transport children, and took the child to a supervised visit with his father, but then decided to \u201crun numerous personal errands with KJ still in the car seat in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The report said the boy was in temporary custody of the state over claims of drug use in his home.<\/p>\n<p>He apparently was abandoned in the vehicle about 12:30 p.m., and found about five hours later. He was pronounced dead at 6:03 p.m. Temperatures during the period reached 96 degrees, the report said.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Another Democrat-run disaster in a red state.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udfe5 Alabama is red\u2026 but cities like Montgomery and Birmingham are run like blue hellholes.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udea8 3-year-old Keterrius Sparks died after being left in a hot car.<\/p>\n<p>Where was CPS? Where was the mother? The community?<\/p>\n<p>Strong families\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sdxgYmKbXh\">pic.twitter.com\/sdxgYmKbXh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 A Gene Robinson (@AlBuffalo2nite) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlBuffalo2nite\/status\/1948509646286696466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 24, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/beat-the-press\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #ad3434;\"><strong> Beat <span style=\"color: #333399;\"> The Press <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by WorldTribune Staff \/ 247 Real News August 1, 2025 An Alabama 3-year-old who was taken from his parents by Child Protective Services (CPS) died after being left in a hot car for hours by a contractor for CPS. The CPS worker allegedly took the child for a visit with his father in Birmingham, then [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":148373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,5],"tags":[296,6],"class_list":["post-148372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-exclusives","category-world-tribune","tag-alabama-3-year-old-left-to-die-in-hot-car-while-child-protective-services-worker-ran-personal-errands","tag-worldtribune-com","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}