Assa Diawara will return to court in December, facing charges of abandonment of a child and child endangerment.
Someone reported seeing a "wrapped bundle" at the bottom of a staircase and, upon closer inspection, realized it was an infant, according to the criminal complaint.
The umbilical cord was still attached, indicating the baby had likely been born within a few hours of abandonment.
Police said Diawara was caught on surveillance footage showing a woman wearing glasses, pink pants, a geometric patterned top, a red/maroon headscarf, and brown shoes carrying something in her arms that appeared to be wrapped in blankets, walking through the turnstiles in the subway station at 34th Street and 7th Avenue.
Subsequent footage showed the woman leaving the station emptyhanded, the complaint said.
Police said Diawara admitted "the woman in the above described videos was her and that she gave birth in the late evening to early morning hours of October 19, 2025 into October 20, 2025."
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