Video shows Orange County deputy rescue infant from hot car

Deputy: Child was purple, drenched with sweat

ORLANDO, Fla. – Body camera footage captured the moment an Orange County sheriff's deputy crashed through a window in order to save a baby left in a hot vehicle.

According to his report, Deputy Robert Rodriguez said he was alerted of the baby inside a Nissan Sentra outside the Home Depot on South Orange Blossom Trail on June 12.

Newly obtained body camera footage shows Rodriguez as he uses his baton to smash through the windows of the car, revealing the sounds of a baby crying.

The video showed the child's father, Rafael Penna, emerging from the store.

"What's the matter with you? What are you doing?" Rodriguez asked.

Penna appeared in the video to be confused, and then he tells the deputy he forgot his infant son was in the back seat.

"The baby is fine?" he asked the deputy.

"I don't know, man," the deputy responded. "I'll be honest with you. When I got there, I thought something bad was going to happen."

"But the baby is alive?" Penna was heard asking.

"She's alive. She's alive," the deputy responded.

Penna's hands appeared to shake in the video as he handed the deputy his identification. He could be heard telling the deputy he was in the Home Depot for about 30 minutes, but the deputy would later write in his report that surveillance video showed he was in the store for about 50 minutes.

He wrote the temperature outside was 92 degrees, and the temperature inside the car was approximately 118 degrees.

The child was rushed to Arnold Palmer Medical Center, where he was treated and released to his family.

Penna was not allowed to leave that June day, and the video showed he wanted to know why.

"If you can describe to me -- I know this is the procedure, but what is going on?" he asked the deputy.

"Right now, we're doing an investigation. OK? Because it's not OK that the child was left in the car," Rodriguez told him.

News 6 called Penna's attorney for a comment on the body camera footage, but she did not return the phone call.

Penna is set to go to trial in November on a child abuse charge and a charge of leaving a child in an unattended vehicle.


About the Author:

Erik Sandoval joined the News 6 team as a reporter in May 2013 and became an Investigator in 2020. During his time at News 6, Erik has covered several major stories, including the 2016 Presidential campaign. He was also one of the first reporters live on the air at the Pulse Nightclub shooting.

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