The woman who abandoned her newborn daughter in bustling Penn Station just hours after giving birth at her Queens home told cops she was trying to find an orphanage when she left the child on the subway steps, the Daily News has learned.
Assa Diawara, 30, confessed to leaving the infant at the foot of a staircase on the downtown No. 1 train platform at the 34th St.-Penn Station stop at about 9:30 a.m. on Monday, cops and prosecutors said.
The baby — who still had her umbilical cord attached — was found by commuters soon after and taken to Bellevue Hospital. The infant is reportedly healthy, officials said.
Diawara was arrested late the next day in Jamaica, Queens, after cops tracked her down.
When questioned, Diawara claimed that she gave birth inside her basement apartment late Sunday night into Monday morning. She said she went to Manhattan to find an orphanage for the baby, but couldn’t find one, so she left the baby at the station, a police source with knowledge of the case said.
Cops charged Diawara—who works at a Food Bazaar and has no criminal record— with abandonment of a child and child endangerment.
A judge on Wednesday approved Diawara for supervised release. She was allowed to leave without bail, but will need to check in with a caseworker who will ensure that she will return to court.
Neighbors said she hasn’t been back at her basement apartment since she was released from the hospital.
“It’s horrible,” said a 64-year-old neighbor who gave her name only as Teresa. “I feel sorry for both. Because who knows what she was going through. I’m a mother, I have two grown men.”
“Leave it with one of your neighbors,” she added. “If she would’ve left it with one of us, it’s a different thing, right? Or if she needed help, I would have helped her. Any of us would have.”
Diawara was caught on surveillance video wearing a red headscarf, pink pants, glasses and a multicolored top that might be a hospital gown as she took the baby, who was wrapped in a blanket and cradled in her arms, down into the train station, cops said.
NYPD detectives conducting an exhaustive search of surveillance footage in Midtown captured images of Diawara coming out of Penn Station empty handed, the sources said.
She was recorded getting into a livery cab which took her to Jamaica where she was dropped off. Cops canvassed that area, and a neighbor recognized her from the surveillance footage and directed police to her home, where she was taken into custody without incident.
In New York State, a newborn baby up to 30 days old can be legally anonymously surrendered under the safe haven law by bringing the infant to any hospital, police stationhouse or fire station and handing the child directly to a staff member.
With Emma Seiwell
