By Sasha Gonzales
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The father whose twin babies died after he said he forgot them inside his sweltering parked car in the Bronx was released on $100,000 bail Saturday.
Juan Rodriguez, 39, left 1-year-old Luna Rodriguez and twin sister Phoenix inside his Honda Accord while working a shift at the James J. Peters Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Kingsbridge Friday.
The twins were inside the car with its windows closed for more than eight hours before Rodriguez realized he’d forgotten to drop them off at day care, police said.
A licensed social worker and Iraq War veteran, Rodriguez is charged with criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter, and endangering the welfare of a child.
Paramedics found the babies lifeless and foaming at the mouth inside the car, their temperatures having reached 108 degrees, authorities said. The siblings were pronounced dead at the scene.
“My babies are dead,” Rodriguez told police after seeing his lifeless babies, according to a criminal complaint filed by prosecutors. “I killed my babies.”
Rodriguez is due back in court next week.