Little worn blue shoes sat on the sidewalk of a parking lot in the shadow of a high-rise apartment. Next to them, amidst yellow police tape, were the remnants of a failed rescue mission: a purple paramedic’s bag, a yellow toy, a small water bottle, a red car with the passenger side window broken.

A few steps away, a black car seat sat upright, empty.

This was the scene on a hot Thursday afternoon at 299 Mill Rd. in Etobicoke, where a child, age and gender still unknown, died after being left in a car for an estimated four hours.

The identity of the person who left the child in the car remains unclear, but police confirm that one person has been arrested.

“We don’t know what happened here yet,” said Toronto police Const. David Hopkinson.

As people gathered in their balconies to look down at the lengthy police investigation below, senior residents gathered outside answering inquiries from children coming home from the school next door, and dog-walkers heading to the dog park just behind the parking lot where the child died.

Residents of the building told the Star that the child was left in the red Hyundai at 9 a.m. and found by the superintendent around 1 p.m.

With temperatures hitting 26 C, the superintendent broke the window and pulled the child out, and called an ambulance, said Doreen Ormsby, a long-time resident of the building.

Police, paramedics and Toronto firefighters were called to the building parking lot, near Burnhamthorpe and Mill Rds., at about 2 p.m.

The child was rushed to the hospital where it was pronounced dead.

Sylvia Barreiro, a resident of the apartment behind 299 Mill Rd., was tanning in the greenery adjacent to the apartment when she learned what happened.

“It’s so disturbing to hear this happened,” Barreiro said.

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