The 20-year-old mother who abandoned her baby girl on a sweltering
Manhattan subway platform on Monday was struggling to cope with caring
for the child, she told cops. Frankea Dabbs, who moved to New York from
North Carolina just days ago, has been charged with abandoning a child
after she left her 10-month-old daughter, Milani Edmonds, alone on a
train platform at Columbus Circle on Monday morning. ‘She felt she
couldn’t take care of the baby and thought she was leaving her in a safe
public space,’ NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis said.
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Relatives said that Dabbs, who was homeless after arriving in New
York on July 2, had been plagued with troubles in North Carolina,
including possible mental health issues and witnessing the killing of
her baby’s father. Dabbs was forced to cower under the bed in their home
in Clinton, North Carolina as masked intruders shot the man dead, her
father Franklin Dabbs told the New York Daily News. ‘She was there
hiding under the bed,’ he said. ‘I told her, “It could have been you”.’
Online records and mug shots also show she has previously been arrested
for possession of marijuana, assaulting an officer, breaking and
entering and solicitation for prostitution.
On Tuesday, Dabbs was found around 12.30am near 72nd Street and
Broadway after a passerby recognized her from security footage and
alerted a nearby police officer, DNAinfo reported. She allegedly
admitted to the officer that she was the mother of the baby girl and was
able to provide her name, age and medical history. On Tuesday, she was
pictured being hauled in handcuffs to her arraignment by NYPD Transit
Robbery Squad detectives. On Monday morning, Dabbs had allegedly pushed
the baby’s stroller from a northbound 1 train at Columbus Circle before
darting back inside the train.
Surveillance footage released by the NYPD showed the woman entering
the subway with the baby in the stroller earlier in the day, but there
were no cameras on the platform where the incident occurred. A
33-year-old bystander saw the baby alone on the platform and stayed with
her for about 20 minutes, waiting for the woman to return. When no one
came to claim the child, the witness contacted the MTA who took the baby
to Transit District 1 Police Station. The baby was then taken to St
Luke’s Roosevelt hospital for evaluation before she was handed over to
the NYC Administration for Children’s Services.
The girl had a rash on her face and bandages on her hand but is said
to be in good condition. She was reportedly wearing a red and white
blouse with red leggings and pampers. Authorities believe the mother
left her there intentionally because no one came forward to claim the
baby girl. Patricia Floro, 44, who got off the train at the station with
her two-year-old daughter in a stroller, told the Daily News it
appeared like a desperate act. ‘She must have her reasons for doing
that. I mean something else is going on, something deeper that would
make her do that,’ Floro said.
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