commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Parenting is an awesome responsibility for both mothers and fathers. The obligations are endless and there’s always the possibility that something very serious – or even fatal – could go wrong.
Given the real possibility of various heartbreaking catastrophes, I sometimes wonder why anyone chooses to take on the burden. Of course raising children (siring – as it used to be called in the old days) is apparently the way nature planned it.
We see it in the animal kingdom where the beasts of the forests and fields instinctively care for their young, and we see it among our species where parenting techniques vary greatly depending on the dedication and volition of the particular parents in question.
One of the myriad mistakes that can put a child in jeopardy is being saddled with an absent-minded parent who simply forgets “to mind the store”. A recent study by Professor Jostein Holmen, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), shows that men are significantly more absent-minded than women which means, Moms, you could be putting your little darling at risk if you leave him or her in Dad’s capable but often forgetful hands.
Now the professor claims to be surprised by the findings of his own research which I find surprising. But perhaps spending too much time in a research lab is a bit like crawling under a rock; in any event, I suspect most of us are not surprised by the good Professor’s findings which – among other things — show that men are just as forgetful at age 30 as they are at 60 years of age.
Thus, based on these findings, a Mom should probably think twice (or even thrice) before putting Dad in charge of the kid, or at the very least, should constantly check up on him. This was hammered home with heartbreaking clarity in the recent death of a child who was cooked to death when his father forgot to drop him off at day care and instead left him strapped in a car seat in the back of an SUV with the windows rolled up for 7 hours in dangerously hot weather.
The father, Justin Ross Harris, 33, of Marietta, Georgia has been charged with murder and cruelty to children in the first degree, according to his arrest warrant, which states in part:
“Said accused did leave a 22-month-old juvenile male unattended and strapped into a child car seat in a parked vehicle for approximately seven hours during daytime hours after which the child was found deceased.”
Alexis Stevens of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes:
An autopsy will be conducted by the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the cause of death for the child, according to Sgt. Dana Pierce with Cobb police.
The child’s name was not released by police. But the Facebook page believed to belong to Harris shows several pictures of the boy, identified as Cooper.
Harris, who goes by Ross, is a Tuscaloosa, Ala., native who just passed the two-year mark of employment with Home Depot, according to his online profile. A Home Depot corporate office is located about two miles from the Akers Mill Road shopping center where Harris drove his son Wednesday afternoon. It was that parking lot where the boy was pronounced dead by emergency responders.
Although this may seem a bit mysterious at first, it appears that Harris, who graduated from the University of Alabama in 2012 with a degree in Management Information Systems and worked at the Home Depot corporate offices in or near the Cumberland Mall in Vinings, parked his car in the mall parking lot before putting in a day’s work. It was his day to drop his son off at day care but he simply spaced it out. After work, he got in his SUV and had driven a few miles before he realized his son was motionless in the back seat. Harris then pulled into the Akers Mill Road shopping center parking lot which is where his son was pronounced dead.
Harris did not speak and and displayed no outward emotion during a brief court appearance Thursday night before Magistrate Judge John Strauss. Because he’s been charged with murder, Harris is not eligible for bond and will be held in the Cobb County Jail until his next court appearance, scheduled for July 15.
While the investigation into the toddler’s death continues, questions linger regarding how it could have happened.
Although accidental homicides of this nature generally don’t result in murder charges, Cobb County District Attorney, Vic Reynolds, said Thursday the investigation is “far, far from over.”
“I don’t know where this investigation will ultimately lead,” Reynolds said in a phone interview with AM 750 and 95.5 FM News/Talk WSB, stating that the fact the child clearly suffered greatly before expiring, thus triggering the cruelty to children in the first degree charge, supports the murder charge.
“It’s just a terrible, God-awful situation,” Reynolds said. “I can’t imagine, I can’t fathom what any parent would be going through at this stage. It’s the type of case that affects the community.”
Harris and his wife were not yet homeowners but were hoping to buy soon. Their landlord, Joe Saini, said the couple are “very, very nice” people who were in love with their baby.
“Everything was going right for this couple,” Saini said. “They wanted to buy a house so they could have some space for their child to run around the backyard.”
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I could easily be wrong, but my hunch about this, based on his “far, far from over” statement, is that the D.A. is fishing for some type of evil intent, malevolence, on Harris’s part, in order to support the murder charge. It may well be, though, that it truly was mere absent-mindedness on the father’s part, who is reportedly incredibly bereaved over his son’s untimely death and of course, the fact he was instrumental in bringing it about.
And doesn’t it seem a bit odd that over and over again, we see cases in which guns are accidentally discharged resulting in the death of a friend or family member and no charges are brought, yet here, in what appears to be equally an accident, Harris will almost certainly be standing trial for murder.