Woman Arrested in Penn Station Newborn Abandonment

A newborn girl with her umbilical cord still attached was found wrapped in a blanket at the bottom of a staircase leading to the No. 1 platform at 34th Street–Penn Station during morning rush hour on Oct. 20 and was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Surveillance video showed a woman carrying a bundled infant into the station and later leaving without the child, prompting the NYPD to release images and seek public help while investigators reviewed footage. Police traced the footage and arrested 30-year-old Assa Diawara early Wednesday in Queens; she is charged with child abandonment and endangering the welfare of a child. Diawara told investigators she had given birth hours earlier, and officials said she did not use New York’s Safe Haven process that allows anonymous surrender at designated locations. The NYPD said the investigation into Diawara’s motive and the circumstances of the abandonment is ongoing.