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ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this surveillance camera image provided by the NYPD, a woman, top right, pushes her baby girl in a stroller at the Columbus Circle subway station in New York Monday. The 20-year-old woman, who is suspected of abandoning the baby at the Manhattan station, was in police custody on Tuesday.
NEW YORK >> A woman suspected of abandoning her baby girl at a Manhattan subway station was in police custody on Tuesday.
The 20-year-old woman was being questioned after being found around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday near Central Park, around 72nd Street and Broadway, police said.
No charges were immediately filed. The investigation was continuing.
Authorities were notified of the woman’s whereabouts by someone who recognized her from photos and video police released showing a woman pushing the child through a subway turnstile.
The woman pushed the baby’s stroller onto the platform from a northbound No. 1 train when it arrived at the Columbus Circle station and then got back onto the train, police said.
A passenger observed the woman and child board the train at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, police said. The passenger got off at Columbus Circle and noticed the unattended stroller on the platform and the mother inside the train. After the train pulled away, the passenger remained with the baby for about 20 minutes. When the mother did not return, she notified a subway worker who called police.
Authorities described the baby as 6 to 7 months old. She was examined at Roosevelt Hospital, and no apparent signs of trauma were found.
The baby was placed in the care of the city’s Administration for Children’s Services.
A city law that allows people to take an unwanted baby to a firehouse, police station or hospital with no questions asked would not have applied in this case because it only pertains to infants 5 days old or younger.
