NEW YORK (AP) — The mother of a newborn girl who was abandoned in a busy midtown Manhattan subway station with her umbilical cord still attached was arrested early Wednesday, city police said.
The 30-year-old Queens woman was arrested shortly before 3 a.m. and charged with abandoning and endangering a child. He was expected to appear in court later that Wednesday.
The baby was abandoned Monday in a hallway at the 34th Street-Penn Station subway stop during the usually busy morning rush hour. The subway stop is attached to the larger Penn Station complex, the nation’s busiest rail hub, which sits beneath Madison Square Garden.
The arrest came after police on Tuesday released images of a woman wanted for questioning over what happened to the child in an attempt to identify her. The woman was recorded in a two-second video clip from a security camera on a busy city sidewalk carrying something that appears to be wrapped in a bundle and holding it as if someone were carrying a baby.
The baby was found unattended and wrapped in a blanket, police said. She was taken to a hospital for evaluation and is in stable condition. Police were called to the scene after receiving reports that an unidentified person left the baby at the station and left.
It was not immediately clear if the woman had an attorney who could respond to the allegations. A home phone number was out of service Wednesday.
A team from the city’s Administration for Children’s Services was “deployed to ensure the continued well-being of the baby,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“I call it the ‘Miracle on 34th Street,'” Demetrius Crichlow, president of New York City Transportation, told reporters Monday, referring to the classic Christmas movie.
New York has a law, enacted in 2000, that allows a parent to deliver a newborn up to 30 days old to a hospital, or a staffed police or fire station without fear of prosecution. Under the state’s Safe Haven law, parents must immediately notify the appropriate person of the baby’s location.
Liyan Bao, senior vice president of child welfare at The New York Foundling, one of the city’s oldest child welfare agencies, said babies used to be left at the agency’s doorstep 150 years ago. But today, there is support available for New York parents, like a new short-term respite program launched this summer for parents facing a crisis.
“The services are available,” he said. “And I would really encourage families in need to reach out.”