Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says the Ministry of Children and Families (MCFD) is now involved in a case involving children who were left in a hot car.
The incident, which has now gone viral online, shows a Vancouver police officer berating a mom who is standing beside her vehicle.
The video was shot by a passerby around 3:50 p.m. on Monday July 3 at a grocery store on Grandview Highway.
“Do you understand what you have done?” asks the officer. “Your children could have died.”
The mother appears to try to explain her actions, but the officer keeps interrupting her asking “why are you arguing?”
“You want me to seize your kids and you’ll never see them again?”
Multiple people called 911 after noticing two young children locked in a car by themselves in the parking lot with no parents in sight.
The car alarm was going off and the windows were closed.
Another video posted to social media showed witnesses speaking to the mother about her children and eventually surrounding the vehicle after alerting police.
In the video, the mother alleges the sunroof was tilted open and that she had only left her children for five minutes. Witnesses in the video can be heard saying they had been standing by the vehicle, waiting for her, for 20 minutes. A handful of them then stand in front and behind the car, not allowing the woman to drive away before police arrived.
WATCH: Witnesses stop mother who left kids in hot car in Vancouver parking lot
When police arrived they discovered a six-year-old girl and a three-and-a-half year old boy, who had been inside the car for an unknown amount of time.
Palmer says the mother was in the store for about 20 minutes before she came outside.
The kids were both dehydrated and were treated on scene but did not have to go to hospital.
Palmer says the officer, who can be seen in the video, is highly respected, has kids of his own and was concerned for the state of the children in the car.
No charges have been laid but the case has been referred to the MCFD due to the mother’s lack of judgement, says Palmer.
WATCH: A viral video shows Vancouver police officer confronting a woman who left her two small children in a hot car. The incident happened Monday at a grocery store on Grandview Highway.
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