The mother of a 3-year-old Queens girl who died in a burning car Sunday evening had fought unsuccessfully to deny the father visitation rights and said Monday she “should’ve just kept her and gone to jail,” according to a report. The little girl’s remains were pulled late Sunday from the back of her father’s charred Audi in Queens. Reports said the back doors had been chained shut. The girl’s father, Martin Pereira, had reportedly told the mom, "You’re never going to see your daughter again.” Pereira was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan and treated for his burns. He is in police custody as of Monday evening, but has not been charged, The New York Daily News reported. Cherone Coleman, the girl's 36-year-old mom, told The Daily News that Pereira had become unhinged in recent weeks and the two had been engaged in an ugly court battle. She said, despite her wishes, a judge granted Pereira weekend visitation rights and he took their daughter on Saturday. It was only his second time visiting their daughter since they broke up, Coleman said. KENTUCKY DAD CHARGED WITH MURDER AFTER PUNCHING, KILLING BABY OVER LOSING VIDEO GAME, POLICE SAY After ducking his calls over the weekend, Coleman said she finally spoke with Pereira late Sunday – right before their daughter was killed in the burning car. She alleged he told her, “Do I have your attention now, b----? I got your attention now, b----. You’re never going to see your daughter again.” GET THE FOX NEWS APP Police on Monday ruled their daughter’s death a homicide.<doc-sep>The 3-year-old girl who was allegedly left by her monstrous dad to burn alive inside a chained-shut car in Queens died as a result of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries, the city’s medical examiner ruled. Zoey Pereira suffered a gruesome death Sunday night after she was left strapped in a baby seat inside the locked, gasoline-covered Audi A6 that was set ablaze in Springfield Gardens. First responders pulled the girl’s charred body from the flaming car parked at 155th Street and Baisley Boulevard, but she could not be saved. The medical examiner announced Zoey’s cause of death Wednesday and officially ruled the child’s death a homicide. Zoey’s dad, 39-year-old Martin Pereira, had threatened the victim’s mother, Cherone Coleman, 36, shortly before the horrific incident, saying, “You’re never going to get your daughter again.” Charges are pending against Pereira, who remains hospitalized at Weill Cornell Medical Center. Pereira suffered second- and third-degree burns to 70 percent of his body as a result of the incident.<doc-sep>The episode is the latest in a string of cases in which children have been killed during custody battles between parents. The Center for Judicial Excellence, an organization that tracks the safety of children in family court disputes, estimates that 679 have been killed by a divorcing or separated parent throughout the country since 2008, or about 60 each year. Nearly a year ago, a 47-year-old mother killed her 7-year-old son by pushing him off the balcony of the Gotham Hotel in Midtown Manhattan before jumping herself. She had also been in a custody dispute. The city Administration for Children’s Services had a file of past complaints concerning Zoey, but the reports appeared to be related to her parents’ custody battle, said an official familiar with the situation, who was not authorized to release the information. It is not uncommon for a parent in a custody dispute to accuse the other of abuse, the official said. Mr. Rivera, the former work colleague, said Mr. Pereira had expressed fears that his daughter was being physically abused and exposed to marijuana smoke. He had told Mr. Rivera that Zoey’s mother had punched him in the face during one fight. “I said, ‘Why didn’t you go straight to the police?’” Mr. Rivera recalled. “‘Maybe if you had, you could get custody of your daughter easier.’” Zoey’s mother, Cherone Coleman, declined a request for an interview. Mr. Pereira was arrested once before, six years ago, on charges of aggravated harassment involving a young woman, but the outcome of the case was sealed, the police said. The episode that ended with Zoey’s death began shortly before 9 p.m. on Sunday, when the authorities responded to a 911 call for a car on fire near Baisley Pond Park in the Springfield Gardens neighborhood, the police said.<doc-sep>A toddler girl died in Queens on Sunday after being left inside a locked and burning car, sources said. The three-year-old child was pried out of the backseat of the flaming Audi A6 Sedan near Baisley Boulevard and 155th Street just before 9 p.m. and rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where she later died, the sources said. The kid’s 39-year-old father was driving the car and ran from the scene while in flames, according to the sources. MISSING ALABAMA WOMAN FOUND ALIVE IN WRECKED CAR 5 DAYS AFTER DISAPPEARANCE, POLICE SAY The dad was taken into custody and hospitalized. Officials had received a call about a car stopped in the middle of the boulevard. When they arrived, they noticed the windows were shut and saw one gas canister in the street, and another in the backseat, sources said. The back doors of the cars were chained shut, sources said. The heat from inside had melted the door handle, allowing firefighters to pull the girl out, the source said. That’s when the 39-year-old driver, who looked like he was on fire, sprinted out and jumped into the pond at Baisley Park, where he was later apprehended. GOOD SAMARITANS RESCUE WOMAN FROM BURNING CAR IN LOUISIANA “He was on a stretcher, He’s burned,” said witness Lisa Silvera, 50. “He looked white. So burned. With a mask on his face.” The driver, who sources said is the girl’s father, sustained second and third-degree burns and will be taken to Cornell Hospital, sources said. GET THE FOX NEWS APP The incident, which is still under investigation, appears to have been related to a custody dispute.<doc-sep>
Photo : Getty A 3-year-old child burned to death inside a car that had been set on fire and its doors chained shut, and her father is in a hospital under police custody, suspected of being involved in what authorities are calling the tot’s homicide. Police and firefighters found little Zoey Pereira strapped inside the backseat of a car that was engulfed in flames on a street in New York City’s Queens borough Sunday night. The doors had been chained shut, but the heat from the flames was so intense, the metal melted enough for the rescuers to pull the little girl from the death trap, according to the New York Daily News. They rushed her to a hospital, but it was too late. Zoey was declared dead. Police are investigating Zoey’s death as a homicide, according to the New York Times, which reports that a witness told investigators that he saw Zoey’s father, Martin Pereira, 39, running from the car with his clothes on fire. He ran into a nearby park, where he jumped into a lake to douse the flames, the witness said. Police took him to the hospital, where on Tuesday, he remained badly burned and under medical sedation, according to the News. According to the Times: Investigators found two gas canisters — one in front of the car and one in the rear seat — and a 20-pound propane tank in the trunk. The tank had a hose attached to it that ran into the back seat, according to a city official close to the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information. While Pereira is in police custody, he has not been charged with a crime as authorities have been unable to question him to find out exactly what happened, the News reports. However, friends, family members and the child’s mother told reporters that she and Pereira had been in an ugly custody battle over Zoey. “There was a lot of stress building up in him,” a former co-worker, Angel Rivera, told the Times of Pereira, saying that Pereira had been distraught and complained he was only going to see his daughter every two weeks. The child’s mother, 36-year-old Cherone Coleman, overcome by grief and anger, told the News that Pereira had their daughter in his care at the time of the child’s death due to a judge’s order, and that she wishes she had disobeyed the judge. “I should’ve just kept her and gone to jail,” Coleman said.