On Wednesday morning, an off-duty police officer in Bettendorf saw the back door of a Toyota Camry in a Hy-Vee grocery store parking lot open and a child fall out, WQAD-TV reported. The officer called for help.
The child's father, 31-year-old Wesley Thomas Hendley, went inside the Hy-Vee to pick up a prescription and buy a Mountain Dew, The Quad-City Times reported. The child and the driver of the car, a 21-year-old man, stayed in the parking lot.
When police arrived they found the child climbing around the back seat, according to an arrest affidavit filed by the Bettendorf Police Department. The child had a large bump on his forehead, a red “road rash” scrape on his left cheek and several of his fingers were injured and bloody, police said.
Hendley had been in the front passenger seat of the Camry when his son fell out. The child wasn’t in a car seat or wearing a seat belt, according to police.
Police said they found a car seat in the trunk of the car.
Neither Hendley nor the driver called 911 after the boy fell out of the vehicle, and neither seemed concerned with seeking medical attention for him, according to the affidavit.
Hendley was arrested on a charge of child endangerment causing bodily injury, a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison. He was also cited for no child restraint, and was found to have an outstanding warrant out of a different county.
The driver of the car didn’t receive a citation, according to WQAD-TV.
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