Neighbors Defend Disabled War Vet Charged In Hot Car Death Of Twins

Source: Jill Lehmann Photography / Getty

Neighbors Defend Dad Charged In Hot Car Death Of Twins

39-year-old Juan Rodriguez has been charged with manslaughter following the hot car death of his 1-year-old twins. An Iraq war veteran, who’d been caring for the homeless and other vets at the time of his babies’ deaths, Rodriguez is described as an amazing father who MUST’VE made a mistake. According to reports, he dropped his 4-year-old son off at daycare, then went about the rest of his day —  forgetting the twins, who needed to be dropped off at a separate daycare center.

“By all accounts, he was a doting dad to his year-old twin son and daughter, setting up a bouncy castle in the yard for their recent first birthday party and dressing them in their latest cute outfits while his wife made breakfast in their Rockland County split-level. Then, on Saturday, Juan Rodriguez, 39, was hauled handcuffed before a judge, charged with the babies’ hot-car deaths. He forgot to drop them off at their day care Friday morning, Rodriguez has told cops — and didn’t realize they were still in the back seat when he parked at the Bronx hospital where he’s a social worker, court papers reveal,” the NYPost states. “Eight hours later, the twins, Luna and Phoenix, registered an internal temperature of 108 degrees when coroners examined their bodies in their car seats. “I assumed I dropped them off at day care before I went to work,” Rodriguez told cops at the scene, according to the criminal complaint against him. ‘I blanked out!’ he cried. ‘My babies are dead! I killed my babies!’ Rodriguez was still sobbing at his arraignment Saturday night before Bronx Criminal Court Justice Patsy Goldborne. A disabled Iraq war veteran, he still wore the same turquoise polo shirt he’d worn Friday as he cared for homeless and ailing vets at his job at a VA hospital in Kingsbridge — oblivious that his twins were in the back seat of his Honda Accord in the parking lot.”

He was reportedly distraught when he realized what he’d done. The NYPost describes that moment…

On Friday morning, Rodriguez had driven to work, as usual, from his home in New City, a middle-class, heavily wooded suburb an hour’s drive north of the city. Video shows it was 8:22 a.m. when he parked in the hospital parking lot, police sources said. The video shows him returning at one minute before 4 p.m. Rodriguez started the car and drove north toward home — only to pull over less than 10 minutes later, while still in the Bronx, on Kingsbridge Terrace. “I left them in the car!” he began screaming. Witnesses called 911; arriving medics could not revive the babies and they were pronounced dead at the scene.

Many friends and neighbors have been chiming in on Juan’s behalf…

Family friend Temple Barros, 41, who lives with the family, told The Post that Rodriguez routinely took the twins to a day care in the mornings. The twins would stay there throughout the day, Barros said, as Rodriguez was at his hospital job and Marissa worked as a tourism and travel sales manager at the Empire City Casino in Yonkers. And while Barros didn’t see Rodriguez and the twins leave the house Friday, it would have been the dad, not the mother, who put them in the car, he said. “An amazing guy,” Barros told The Post of Rodriguez. “He’s always been there for his kids. Always. This is just a horrible situation,” he said. “The family isn’t doing so well,” he added.

Rodriguez was “always doing things with the kids,” said Caterino, the neighbor. “Always in the yard playing. They had a big campout last weekend, with tents in the back yard. “He would always play catch or basketball with his older kids,” Caterino said of Rodriguez’s two older sons from a prior marriage.

We are praying for Juan and his entire family during this tragic time. May his babies rest in peace.