Cpl. Darryl Wormuth says something told him to go back.
The Prince George’s County police officer had found a man lying facedown in the grass near an apartment complex in Suitland, Md., around noon Tuesday during his routine patrol. The man appeared to be under the influence and was conscious but could not speak, according to police.
Wormuth called an ambulance and went with emergency medics to drop the man off at a hospital. But three hours
later, after his shift ended around 3 p.m., Wormuth was drawn back to the apartment complex.
“Something was telling me to go back to this area,” Wormuth said.
He returned to find a troubling scene.
In a remote corner of the apartment complex parking lot near where he found the man in the grass, the officer came upon an SUV with a toddler strapped in a car seat alone.
The car was running, a window was down and the little girl’s eyes were closed. It was a hot day, and
the 10-year member of the police department feared the worst.
“Please, God, let this child be alive,” he recalled saying to himself.
It turns out the child, no more than 2 years old, was the daughter of the man Wormuth had escorted to the hospital. The man had no identification on him, was not speaking and never indicated he had a child. The officer had earlier used a key fob found around the man’s neck to try to find his car, but he pressed the panic button several times in three
parking lots in the area and no vehicle responded.
It was only after Wormuth returned after his shift that he discovered music coming from a running SUV and saw the girl in the vehicle, her head leaning forward.
After getting closer, the officer was relieved to find the girl’s little chest rising and falling. She was sleeping...
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