Iowa City man arrested for leaving child in hot car

CORALVILLE - An Iowa City man is accused of leaving a baby inside a hot car earlier this month.

According to a Coralville police criminal complaint, officers were called to the Target parking lot at Coral Ridge Mall around 9 p.m. Sept. 4 for a report of an infant left inside an unattended vehicle. Before police arrived, a witness had removed the approximately 4-month-old baby from the vehicle.

Police said the child felt overheated and had 'crackly lung sounds.” There were no other adults around, other than the witness who had removed the child from the vehicle, police said.

The temperature at the time was 82 degrees and the infant had been left strapped into a car seat. Police said the child's father - 43-year-old Ahmed A. Jeddah - came out when he noticed the ambulance and said he left his daughter in the vehicle because he thought his wife was looking after the baby. Police said the infant was left unattended for 35-45 minutes.

Jeddah was arrested and faces one count of child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison.