Charges Dropped Against ‘Hot Car’ Mom

Tragedy Averted and Now No Charges

A child places her hand on the window after she was left inside a hot car along West 183 Street on Thursday, June 20, 2024.—Photo by David Greene

By David Greene 

Bronx Voice 

August 28, 2024

Follow @Bronxvoice1

NEW YORK - The Bronx District Attorney’s office has declined to press charges against a Yonkers mother who left her two young children inside an unattended vehicle in the Bronx for nearly 20 minutes on the first day of summer.

According to a source at the Bronx District Attorney’s office, days after her arrest prosecutors declined to file charges against the mother because the children were not harmed, they were left unattended for eighteen minutes, but were not locked inside of the car.The Bronx Voice was at the scene as Haniyah Agoro, 34, was placed in handcuffs at the corner of West 183 Street and University Avenue after leaving her car double-parked and leaving her two children, ages 7 and 10 inside the vehicle with the windows shut on the first day of summer on June 20.

Police surround vehicle and mother who left her two children in an unattended vehicle along West 183 Street on Thursday, June 20.—Photo by David Greene

When contacted at her home on June 23, Agoro told the Bronx Voice, “Please don’t call this number again, I said… the kids are okay. The kids are fine,” before hanging up the telephone.

Agoro faced two counts of acting in a manner injurious to a child. This case drew attention to the fact that the car was parked near where two children were found dead inside a hot car two years ago.

On June 23, 2020, Juan Rodriguez of Rockland County was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge after he pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment charges nearly a year after he left his two children in the backseat of his vehicle when he went to work at the Bronx Veterans Affairs Hospital on West Kingsbridge Road on July 26, 2019.

One-year-old Twins Luna and Phoenix were discovered deceased by the dad in the backseat of his Honda sedan after he completed his eight-hour shift at the hospital.