A Queens mother faces felony charges after allegedly abandoning her newborn daughter — still attached to her umbilical cord — on the grimy floor of a bustling Manhattan subway platform,
Assa Diawara, 30, was arrested early Wednesday near her home in Jamaica, Queens, and charged with abandonment of a child and endangering the welfare of a child, police said. According to authorities, Diawara admitted to giving birth to the baby girl and leaving her at the 34th Street-Penn Station subway stop during Monday morning’s rush-hour chaos.
Surveillance footage captured Diawara, dressed in pink pants, a red headscarf and glasses while clutching a gray bag, walking down the sidewalk near Seventh Avenue and 34th Street around 9 a.m. She was seen descending the stairs into the station, bundle in arms, before fleeing on foot about 30 minutes later.
A driver picked her up near West 34th Street at 9:22 a.m. and took her back to Queens, police sources said.
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The infant was discovered minutes later on the southbound platform of the 1 train — one of the city’s busiest transit hubs teeming with commuters — wrapped only in a blanket and placed directly on the dirty ground. The newborn was conscious, alert and crying when a passerby spotted her, still connected to her umbilical cord.
Officers rushed the baby to Bellevue Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition and placed under protective care.
Many people following the story have pointed to New York’s Abandoned Infant Protection Act as a potential lifeline tragically overlooked. The law allows parents to surrender babies under 30 days old anonymously and without prosecution at safe havens like hospitals or staffed firehouses — options that could have ensured the child’s handover to willing adoptive families eager to embrace her as a blessing, rather than risking her life in a subway’s shadows.
Neighbors identified Diawara from NYPD-released video on Tuesday, leading to her predawn arrest. The case remains under investigation, with authorities urging anyone with information to contact the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.
For pro-life advocates, the arrest brings a measure of justice but amplifies a deeper sorrow: In a nation where newborns like this girl are discarded, the fight intensifies to build a culture where no mother feels compelled to abandon her child, and every infant is cherished from conception.
