NEW YORK (WCBS) – A mother is facing charges after police say her newborn daughter was abandoned in a bag on an imam’s doorstep in New York City.
Surveillance video shows the woman, later identified as 26-year-old Delfina Galvez, carrying a green tote bag around 6 a.m. Sunday in the Longwood section of the Bronx. Police say the bag held a newborn girl, wrapped in blankets.
The video shows the woman putting the bag on the sidewalk multiple times before taking it out of frame. She then reappears without it.
While the woman was out of frame, she allegedly walked up to Mamadou Jallow’s doorstep and left the bag with the baby inside. The little girl’s cries were quickly heard by neighbors, who called Jallow.
Jallow, who is an imam, says he was at his mosque down the street but rushed back home. He brought the baby inside and called 911.
“When I open the blanket, I see a little baby, blinking the eyes, shaking the fingers, very cold,” he said.
The newborn was taken to Jacobi Medical Center and is said to be doing well.
Jallow says the baby may have been left on his doorstep because he is an imam, but he’s not sure if that’s the reason.
“I just hope the baby to be well. That’s the most important thing and then the mother to be forgiven,” he said.
Police say Galvez is the baby’s mother. She is facing reckless endangerment and child abandonment charges.
Under New York’s safe haven laws, newborns can be left at hospitals, police stations and firehouses with no questions asked and no criminal charges will be filed.
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