Police have charged a 45-year-old Queens man with the attempted murder of his 2-year-old daughter after the pair was found unconscious, covered with chemicals, in a car on Long Island.
Khemchan Sulaiman, a mechanic with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is in critical condition at a Long Island hospital, Nassau County Police spokesman Lt. Kevin Smith said.
Police said he will be arraigned as soon as is practical. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney.
Sulaiman's 2-year-old daughter is in critical but stable condition at Cohen Children's Medical Center, said hospital spokeswoman Michelle Pinto.
Police believe Sulaiman may have tried to kill himself and his daughter after an argument with the toddler's mother.
He and the young girl were found in the vehicle Monday morning behind a store in suburban Lawrence, authorities said.
Investigators found ammonium chloride, commonly found in fire extinguishers and fertilizers, in and on the child's bottle. A chemical used in household pesticides also was found on the father and child and throughout the vehicle.
"It looks like he may have given the child this product to ingest," Smith said. "He may have ingested the rest on his own, so we have to look at from a standpoint it may be an attempt to take his child's life and commit suicide."
Hazardous materials crews checked the vehicle and determined there was no danger to the community, police said.
The girl lived with her mother in Brooklyn, Smith said, but the father had unlimited visitation rights.
He said the couple apparently had been embroiled in some sort of dispute. Police didn't say whether they were married.
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"There may be a great deal of acrimony between both parties, friction between both parties," Smith added.
He said there was no evidence Sulaiman was intoxicated; he declined to comment when asked whether a suicide note was found.
