The family of 3-year-old Ke’ori “KJ” Stark Jr. remembers the little boy as “joyful”, “brilliant” “a happy boy who loved the life that would light any room in which he will enter.”
The young child died after being trapped in a hot car while in the arrest of a worker agreed by the Alabama Human Resources Department, the State Agency for Child Protective Services, according to Jefferson Medical Office and the State Department of Human Resources. The Birmingham Police Department is investigating death.
KJ was left in a car parked in front of a home in Birmingham for several hours in the middle of the day on Tuesday, according to a medical examination of Jefferson County.
“It’s just hard to understand that you will leave a baby in a hot car and you just don’t remember that the baby, a 3-year-old child, is trapped in your car,” Kortney French, the family’s lawyer, told CNN. “He died brutal death.”
It was damp with temperatures ranging from 93 to 96 degrees through the window from 12:30 to 5:30 pm, when KJ is said to be left alone in the car. The values of the heat index, which a factor in temperature and humidity to determine how it feels in the shade, range from 101 to 105 degrees, according to CNN meteorologists.
The family says that a worker who was hired through a company agreed by the Alabama Human Resources Division has erected a KJ from daily care at 9 o’clock in the morning on Tuesday for a controlled visit with his father. This visit, which was part of the process of ordering the court for parents to regain custody of KJ, ended around 11:30 am, according to French.
“Instead of returning the KJ right -day care, the worker made numerous personal orders with KJ, distorted in a car seat in the back of his car,” French told CNN.
CNN has contacted the contracting company and the Birmingham Police Department, but has not heard immediately.
KJ was attached inside the parked vehicle for hours outside the employee’s home, the family lawyer told CNN. – Petway, French & Ford, LLP
According to a time line provided by the family lawyer, the employee returned home at 12:30, leaving KJ “attached inside the vehicle, with all the windows and engine of the vehicle.” He was left in the parked car outside the employee’s home for more than five hours before the day care turned to her to ask why KJ did not return, French said.
“The worker told the law enforcement agencies that only then did she realize that KJ was still in her vehicle,” French said, noting that 911 was called. KJ was declared dead at 18:03, according to the medical specialist’s office.
“It would never have happened if KJ was with his parents,” French added.
The Alabama Human Resources Department said the incident happened while the child was “in custody of DHR” and “was transported by a contract provider”. The department noted that his contracting provider had terminated the employee.
“Due to confidentiality, DHR cannot further comment on the identity of the child or the exact circumstances,” the agency statement said on Saturday.
KJ’s father described his son as a “bright little child”.
“(He) knew how to count, he knew his colors. Three years (he) knew all the animals,” the child’s father told the CNN WVTM branch. “He was just joyful.”
Friday is planned to release balloons and a memorial in support of the KJ family, according to French.
KJ’s death is the first death of a hot car in Alabama this year and he is at least a 16th child who died in a hot car across the country in 2025, according to Amber Rollins, director of Kids and Car Safety, a non -profit organization dedicated to his namesake.
Linda Lam of CNN contributed to this reporting.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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