Texas mother arrested after leaving three children in hot car while shopping

A mother in San Antonio, Texas, was arrested and charged with three counts of child endangerment after a woman noticed her three children in a hot car while out shopping.

Angela Garza–Amador was taken into custody on June 28 after leaving her children – ages 4, 2 and 1 month – alone for nearly an hour while grocery shopping, according to San Antonio police, local CBS affiliate KENS 5, local NBC affiliate WOAI and CNN reported.

In a separate report with KENS 5, the woman who discovered the children and filmed parts of the incident after calling for help said it happened around 2 p.m. local time when she noticed the four-year-old boy in a car next to her in a shopping center parking lot.

As she told the outlet, she saw that the vehicle was turned off and also spotted a 2-year-old girl inside the car. She then opened the front door of the car, which was unlocked, and then ran into the store to get help, calling 911, among other things.

“The boy was sweating really profusely and, you know, he was crying,” she told KENS. “To me, it seemed like he was gasping for air, like they were about to give in.”

A group of people eventually got the children out of the car and also discovered the one-month-old baby. The woman told KENS 5 that the mother was leaving the store when police arrived. “She had the keys, she said the car was on, she said, ‘I left it on, with my esposo, my esposo,'” she told the outlet of the children’s mother.

San Antonio police did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for further information Saturday.

As KENS 5 noted, it was 36 degrees when the children were found and left in the car for nearly an hour. CNN also spoke to authorities, who confirmed the amount of time the children spent in the car.

“The children’s mother was at the scene of the accident and stated she went into a store and did not realize how long she was gone,” police told CNN. “Based on information gathered, the children were in the car for approximately 50 minutes.”

Garza-Amador was arrested and charged with three counts of child abandonment and child endangerment, according to CNN. A preliminary police report indicated that all three children were expected to be released from a local hospital later that day.

“While the details of the investigation are confidential by law, I can confirm that at the time of the incident report, there was no open case involving this family,” a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services told the outlet. “The children were not placed in the custody of Child Protective Services, but were placed in the care of the family.”

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The woman who discovered the children in the car, whose identity remains anonymous, filmed her encounter with the children and shared the footage with KENS. In the video, the oldest boy could be seen breathing heavily and coughing as the Good Samaritan asked him if he needed water before other passersby stepped in to help.

“I live across town and haven’t been to the store I wanted to go to in 10 years. I feel like God literally sent me there for these kids,” the woman said. “I pray that they get the help they need and that she learns from this.”

According to WOAI, Garza-Amador has since been released on bail set at $25,000.

Her arrest came days after a North Carolina mother was arrested and charged in the death of her 8-year-old daughter after she was “left in a car in hot weather.”

The nonprofit Kids and Car Safety reported at the time that there had been five confirmed deaths from overheating cars in the U.S. that year. Since then, that number has risen to seven following child deaths in Georgia and Houston, Texas.