Two small children were pulled from a sweltering hot car outside a Georgia mall last month after bystanders heard crying and quickly called 911. The rescue was caught on body camera footage released by Cobb County police on Monday, showing the tense moments officers shattered a car window to reach the kids inside.
It happened around 1 p.m. on June 4 outside Dick’s Sporting Goods at Cumberland Mall.
A woman walking back to her car heard the crying first. When she looked over, she saw two very young children sitting alone in a parked car, windows barely cracked, sweating and visibly upset. She dialed 911 immediately.
“The windows are cracked, but I don’t think that’s right,” she told the dispatcher. “We just came out of Dick’s and I heard kids crying.”
Police say officers arrived quickly and didn’t hesitate to act. The bodycam video shows them smashing the driver’s side window and unlocking the car. Inside, they found a little boy and a little girl in the backseat — both improperly restrained and clearly overheated.
According to the arrest report, the children had been in the car for 41 minutes.
Police used an infrared thermometer to check the inside of the car. The reading showed a temperature of 117 degrees. Outside, the high that day reached 87 — already a dangerous level, especially for small children. Even with the windows slightly cracked, the heat inside the car had spiked fast.
Soon after the children were pulled to safety, the man who had left them there returned to the vehicle.
Police arrested J’quawn Dixon at the scene. While it’s not confirmed whether he is the biological father of both children, he is now facing two felony counts of second-degree child cruelty. According to the arrest warrant, Dixon caused “cruel or excessive physical or mental pain” to children under 18 by leaving them inside the car without air conditioning on a hot summer day.
Officers later confirmed that Dixon had entered the mall at 12:24 p.m. He didn’t return to the vehicle until around the time officers were already on scene, just before 1:05 p.m.
Dixon was booked into Cobb County Jail and held on a $10,000 bond. He posted bond the next day and was released, according to local reports.
NEW: Georgia police officers save two toddlers roasting in a car that reached an internal temperature of 117 degrees.
Infuriating.
Cobb County Police responded to a call after a shopper noticed two small children sobbing in the backseat of a car.
The father, J’Quawn Dixon,… pic.twitter.com/rOLCES02vb
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 9, 2025
Police praised the quick thinking of the woman who called 911. “A big THANK YOU to the concerned citizens who called 911,” Cobb County Police wrote in a Facebook post. “Your quick action is the reason these kids are safe today. You saw something and did something, and that made all the difference.”
Though both children survived and are expected to recover, police did not release details about their current condition or where they were taken after the rescue.
And now, investigators are working to determine what will happen next — not just for the man who left them behind, but for the children who may still be waiting for answers of their own.
