BIRMINGHAM, AL- You had one job. A now-former transportation driver for Covenant Services, which provides “services to families for 20 years,” according to its website, is being slammed by a Birmingham family after she left a three-year-old foster child inside her hot, locked vehicle for five hours, leading to the child’s death.
The child’s death is currently the subject of an investigation by the Birmingham Police Department, according to AL.com.
The transport driver, who worked for Covenant, a contractor for the Alabama Department of Human Resources, allegedly left the child, Ketorrius “KJ” Starkes Jr., inside her vehicle. At the same time, she admitted stopping to get something to eat and then went home because she thought she was “done for the day.”
She also revealed she stopped at a tobacco store.
She drove home and parked her car outside since her husband’s car was parked in the garage.
On that date, July 22, it was extremely hot and humid, with a heat index estimated at 108 degrees.
Sources say that at that temperature, the inside of the car would have been around 150 degrees. The former worker has not yet been identified.
According to sources, K.J., who had been with his foster family since birth, had a scheduled visit with his father, Ketorrius Starkes Sr., at the DHR office in Bessemer, Alabama. When the visit ended, she was supposed to return the child to daycare.
Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said the vehicle was locked with the windows rolled up. Yates said K.J. was in the car from 12:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m., right in the middle of the hottest part of the day. He was pronounced dead on the scene at 6:03 p.m.
Yates said he was “waiting until the law enforcement completes their investigation.”
However, he added, “Something’s not adding up, so we’re just trying to wait and see what else they find before we make any decisions.”
The transport driver called K.J.’s family to apologize and make an excuse for how the child died. AL.com said she made a call to Starkes Sr., according to Starkes' family attorney, Courtney French.
A portion of that call was posted on Facebook and had been viewed over 110,000 times.
“I’m truly, truly, truly sorry,” the driver told Starkes and another woman who was with him at the time.
“Sorry is not even enough to express how bad I feel,” she continued.
K.J.’s death has drawn attention from lawmakers, including Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who called his death “reprehensible and gross negligence.”
“The contractor for Jefferson County DHR terminated the employee responsible,” Ivey said in a statement. “The safety of Alabama’s children will remain a paramount concern of the Alabama Department of Human Resources.”
Meanwhile, State Rep. Patrick Sellers, a Democrat, released a statement demanding DHR publicly disclose any prior complaints, safety reviews, or incidents involving Covenant Services or related workers.
He said the agency must make any investigative findings accessible to legislators and the public.
Chris Elliot, a Republican, wants Ivey’s assurances that DHR will look at what happened and prevent something like that from happening again.
“It’s not a blame thing,” Elliott said. “It’s just a plea to engage on a little bit more intense level than just simply saying it’s somebody else’s fault. That doesn’t fly for me.
“I think we need to look at why we’re using contractors instead of state employees,” Elliott said. “What are the rules related to these contractors? What are they allowed to do as far as running errands or whatever?
“I mean, I don’t know all the specifics of this case. Don’t pretend to. But what’s going on here? How did we get here?”
Another Republican, Ginny Shaver, chair of the Children and Senior Advocacy Committee in the Alabama House, said the current process of choosing subcontractors by DHR resulted from a lawsuit over two decades ago.
“Any incident of systematic failure should lead to a review to see what could be done to prevent it from happening in the future,” Shaver said in an email.
“This horrific tragedy appears to be the unintended gross negligence of one person, for which there is no excuse. Unfortunately, no policy can prevent human error.”
“The death of little KJ is not just a personal tragedy. It is emblematic of a system that promised protection yet delivered harm,” Sellers said. “We must demand that no child in Alabama faces such needless risk again.”
In her call to Starkes, Sr., the driver tried to explain what happened.
“I got sidetracked and got something to eat, and when I came out, instead of going to the left to daycare because I got called and said I didn’t have a case, I said in my head, ‘Well, I’m done for the day, I can go home.’
“Instead of going to the daycare, I came home,” she told Starkes. “And I forgot he was back there. I am so sorry.”
That led the woman who was on the call to lash out at the driver:
“Baby, you got us sick over here. We can’t breathe. You left a three-year-old in the car. He couldn’t defend hisself [sic]. You supposed to look in the back seat when you knew there was a child there from the get-go,” she said. “It’s nothing you can call to make him feel better,” she said.
“I’m not trying to make him feel better. I’m not,” the driver replied. There’s nothing I can say to make him feel better. I’m so sorry. Sorry don’t even express how deeply sorry I am.”
In response, the woman with Starkes said, “You left that baby in your hot ass car and you…went inside your home and you was in there under air comfortably and this baby died in a car. He suffocated. He didn’t have no help, no nothing. You didn’t think to look in the back seat?”
“That was not my intention. I promise you I would not have done that to your son,” the driver replied.
“I wouldn’t have killed no child,” she continued.
DHR released a statement saying the driver had been terminated.
“The provider has terminated their employee,” the release said. “Due to confidentiality, DHR cannot comment further regarding the identity of the child or the exact circumstances.
Ironically, Covenant Services provides "parenting classes."
K.J.’s funeral was scheduled for last Saturday.
