A child has been found dead inside a vehicle left at a New York State parking lot, according to police.
Suffolk County police on Long Island were notified that the body of a child had been found close to the Smithtown train station at about 4:15 p.m. Monday.
"Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a child found in a vehicle in a Smithtown parking lot," a police spokesperson told Newsweek.
Child abuse and neglect are common issues in the U.S., and at least 1 in 7 children experienced one form of abuse in 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC said that in 2020, 1,750 children across the country died as a result of abuse and neglect.
Police did not reveal any further information about the child's age or gender and whether the death is being treated as suspicious.
There was also no comment about whether anyone had been arrested in connection with the child's death. It is also not known how long the child's body had been in the vehicle before being discovered.
Police wearing light blue gloves were seen removing what appeared to be a car seat from a red Jeep Grand Cherokee and placing it into a large brown paper bag, according News12 Long Island.
There were 918 recorded homicide deaths in New York state in 2021, the CDC said. It added that when adjusted for the population, the homicide death rate in the Empire State was 4.8 per every 100,000 people.
The CDC said that the number of children between ages 1 and 14 who died across the U.S. in 2021 was 9,791. It added that the number of children ages 1 and 4 whose deaths were listed as homicides was 309.
According to the CDC, 188 children aged between 5 and 9 were listed to have died as a result of homicide, and 298 children between 10 and 14 were recorded as homicide deaths.
There have been other tragic instances across the U.S. where children have died after being found in cars.
In March, a 2-year-old was left alone in a car for five hours by his father and the child's father allegedly noticed he left the toddler inside the car. Officers started lifesaving measures when they found the child and helped transported him to a nearby hospital, but he was later pronounced dead.
The father, James Fidele, was arrested and charged with leaving a child unattended in a motor vehicle and causing great bodily harm.
