Monday, Feb. 14, 2011 | 3:02 p.m.
A 3-year-old boy died Friday trying to climb out of a car in what Nye County officials today are calling a mother's tragic decision to briefly leave her son alone in the vehicle.
Officials from the Nye County Sheriff's Office said dispatchers received a 911 call at noon Friday from a woman who said she was driving a child she thought was dead to a clinic in Amargosa Valley.
The phone connection was interrupted, so the nature of the emergency was unclear, but emergency crews immediately responded to the clinic, officials said.
The 3-year-old boy was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators said the boy's mother, 43-year-old Luz Maria Gonzalez, had left the boy sleeping in the back of the vehicle while she briefly went inside a church on Maverick Road. The child had not been restrained in a car seat.
The boy apparently woke up while his mother was inside for about five minutes and tried to climb out a partially open window. The boy died after his head became lodged between the door frame and window, authorities said.
Interviews with family members indicate this was an "isolated but tragic decision" by Gonzalez, Detective Mike Eisenloffel said. There had not been a pattern of neglectful behavior by Gonzalez.
Eisenloffel said authorities don't expect to charge Gonzalez in the boy's death, but they are awaiting autopsy results as part of the investigation.
If authorities deem the incident warrants criminal charges, detectives would recommend to the Nye County District Attorney's Office that Gonzalez be charged with child neglect resulting in death, Eisenloffel said.
The boy has not been identified by the coroner.
