Police: Passerby Rescues Boy, 5, Inside Locked Car at Potomac Mills

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Image: Edwin Afilio Amezquita-Espinoza (PWCPD)

A Dale City man has been charged with felony child neglect for leaving his 5-year-old son in a locked car Sunday afternoon at Potomac Mills mall.

The Prince William County police located and arrested Edwin Afilio Amezquita-Espinoza, 39, of 13721 Gran-Deur Drive. At around 2 p.m., a passerby noticed his son inside the car in the mall’s parking lot, at 2700 Potomac Mills Circle in Woodbridge.

The individual was able to get the child to unlock the car, and medical personnel responded to check his welfare. The child was evaluated and determined to be uninjured, the police said. He was then brought to the mall’s security office, where police were contacted.

In the summer, temperatures can reach dangerously high levels inside cars and other vehicles, posing a lethal threat to infants and small children who are accidentally left behind in those vehicles by parents or caregivers, according to experts.

Amezquita-Espinoza is being held without bond at the Prince William-Manassas regional jail, and his next date in court is pending.