re: Mississippi three year old dies in an overheated police patrol car

quote:

---

The Long Beach police officer who left her daughter alone in a patrol car for four hours Friday while she “visited” with her shift supervisor has faced disciplinary action in the past.

---

quote:

---

Police Chief Wayne McDowell said Tuesday that Cassie Barker, 27, was suspended last year for one week without pay and her one-year probationary period as a new police officer at the agency was extended for an additional 90 days as a result.

That incident occurred in May 2015, less than a year after she joined the police department as a rookie in September 2014. She got her training as a police officer in Jacksonville, Florida, then interned at the sheriff’s department there from August to December in 2011. She joined the Long Beach Police Department in September 2014 and underwent additional training.

“I can’t get into details but there was conduct violations,” McDowell said Tuesday, adding that what happened then seemed pertinent enough to him to relay the information to Hancock County sheriff’s deputies investigating the death of Barker’s 3-year-old daughter, Cheyenn Hyer.

Barker was cited then, he said, for conduct unbecoming of a police officer and failure to abide by all laws in any city, state or municipality.

“There was circumstances around that disciplinary action that I felt were pertinent (to the current investigation into the child’s death),” McDowell said, though he noted he could not go into specifics about what happened.

---