NEW YORK — A woman accused of abandoning her baby at a Manhattan subway station told police Tuesday that she is homeless and felt she could no longer take care of the little girl.
Police said she pushed the baby's stroller from a train onto a platform at the Columbus Circle station Monday and then got back on the train.
Frankea Dabbs, 20, was found about12:30 a.m. Tuesday near Central Park, around 72nd Street and Broadway, police said. They arrested her late Tuesday morning on charges of child abandonment and acting in a manner injurious to a child. It was not immediately known who her attorney would be.
The mother told detectives in a preliminary interview that she is from North Carolina and went to New York on July 2. She said the baby's father died recently in California.
"She felt she couldn't take care of the baby and thought she was leaving her in a safe public space," said Stephen Davis, spokesman for the New York Police Department.
The baby, who is about 10 months old, was examined at Roosevelt Hospital, and doctors found no apparent signs of trauma, police said. She was placed in the care of the city's Administration for Children's Services.
Authorities were notified of the mother's whereabouts by someone who recognized her from photos and video police released showing a woman pushing the child through a subway turnstile gate.