Local businessman charged in tragic death of toddler left inside truck
By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Atmore businessman Shawn Rounsavall was arrested Monday night, February 27, and charged with reckless murder in the tragic death of a toddler who died earlier Monday after being left inside a vehicle all day.
Atmore Police Department Sgt. Darrell McMann said in a press release issued Tuesday morning that police were called around 4:30 p.m. by Atmore Community Hospital staff in reference to “a two-year-old child that was transported to the hospital by the father, after being left unattended in a vehicle for several hours.”
Lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful, and the child was officially pronounced deceased a short time later, police said.
“APD investigators discovered the child was supposed to have been dropped off at a local daycare during the morning hours,” reads the press release. “Officers learned the father went to the daycare that afternoon to pick the child up (and) was told the child was never dropped off that morning.
“The father then discovered the child in the backseat of the vehicle and rushed to the hospital.”
The Escambia County Detention Center website shows that the 52-year-old owner of 30 Below ice cream parlor, was booked into the county jail at 7:15 p.m. Monday on one count of reckless murder. He remained in the facility, awaiting a bond hearing, at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, February 28.
Alabama Criminal Code, Section 13A-6-2 allows for such a charge, formerly known as negligent homicide, when, “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life, (a person) recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to a person other than himself or herself, and thereby causes the death of another person.”