Cops: Dad Was Drinking Before Twins Were Left in Car, Died

Asa North has been arrested in girls' deaths
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 5, 2016 3:01 PM CDT
Cops: Dad Was Drinking When Twin Toddlers Were Left in Car, Died
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Police say a father charged with manslaughter Friday in the deaths of his 15-month-old twin girls had been drinking before he left them in a hot car in 90-degree temperatures, the AP reports. Witnesses heard screams and saw Asa North running as he carried the toddlers from the parking lot in front of their home to an inflatable pool out back. Neighbors joined him, frantically trying to revive the girls with water and ice packs. But they were already unresponsive, and soon were declared dead at a nearby hospital. Outside temperatures were in the 90s on Thursday before police were called at 6:34pm. Investigators were trying to determine how long the girls remained in the parked car, but it would take only a few minutes for the heat to become unbearable. It wasn't immediately clear who discovered the girls in the back of the SUV.

"We do believe alcohol is involved," said Carrollton police Capt. Chris Dobbs, who identified the girls as Ariel North and Alaynah North. "We do believe the father, sometime throughout the day, he had been consuming alcoholic beverages." North, 24, is charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of reckless conduct, Carroll County jail records show. Police were awaiting the results of blood tests to determine his alcohol level. The girls' mother was at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta at the time, visiting her sister, who had been in a serious car crash Wednesday, Dobbs said. "I guess he forgot about the kids and left them in the car," said Donnie Holland, the twins' uncle. "He should have took care of them kids better than that, what he did. He should have never been in the house asleep. He should have got the kids out of the car the time he got out of the car, you know." (More child dies in hot car stories.)

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