Georgia: Police smash car window to save crying children trapped in 117-degree heat

(Background) The Cobb County Police Department released bodycam footage of the rescue. / (L-Bottom) J’quawn Dixon was arrested. Police have charged him with two felony counts of second-degree child cruelty. (Photos via: Cobb County Police Department)

OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
11:52 AM – Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Bodycam footage captured the moment that Georgia police officers shattered the window of a dangerously overheated vehicle, parked in the blistering sun, to rescue two crying toddlers locked inside.

The children had been reportedly waiting for over 40 minutes as temperatures inside the car soared to 117 degrees, as it was parked outside Atlanta’s Cumberland Mall. The two children were approximately “1 and 2 years old,” according to local news sources.

Police were alerted by a concerned passerby who called them, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.

“The windows are cracked, but I don’t think that’s right. We just came out of Dick’s and I heard kids crying,” the female caller said to the 911 dispatcher.

According to police body camera footage, released by KGNS TV, officers broke the car’s driver-side window and rescued the children from the sweltering triple-digit heat.

“It’s okay, baby. Oh, you’re hot,” one officer can be heard saying tenderly to one of the children during the harrowing rescue.

J’quawn Dixon, the children’s “guardian” at the time, was taken into custody upon returning from the mall. He has been charged with two felony counts of child cruelty. However, despite a slew of outlets referring to him as the toddlers’ father, it is unclear if Dixon is their biological father, a step father, or a boyfriend to the mother — and the police did not specify.

Although the outdoor temperature peaked at 87 degrees that day, an infrared thermometer registered a staggering 117 degrees inside the vehicle, according to police.

“A big THANK YOU to the concerned citizens who called 911. Your quick action is the reason these kids are safe today,” Cobb County police wrote on Facebook (Meta). “You saw something and did something, and that made all the difference.”

According to FOX 5, Dixon was arrested and freed the next day after posting a $10,000 bond at the Cobb County Jail.

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