The woman who abandoned her baby in a stroller on a New York subway platform has been arrested.

The woman, identified as twenty-year-old Frankea Dabbs, was reportedly seen pushing the stroller out of the subway car on Monday, July 7. However, the woman did not get out of the car, but instead let the doors close in front of her, continuing on the subway without her child.

A witness said they waited twenty minutes to see if the mother or caretaker would return before contacting police. The seven-month-old child was taken to the nearby St. Luke’s Hospital and was in stable condition. There were no prominent signs of child abuse.

So, why did Dabbs choose to leave her baby unattended in a crowded subway? According to police, Dabbs told them that she was now homeless and couldn’t handle the responsibility of being a mother.

“She felt she couldn’t take care of the baby and thought she was leaving her in a safe public space,” said the spokesman for the New York Police Department Stephen Davis.

Dabbs father explained that he didn’t know that his daughter and granddaughter were in the city, and he thinks that Dabbs seeing her boyfriend get shot was still having an effect on her when she left the child.

Apparently when she was two months pregnant, Dabbs witnessed her boyfriend being shot to death while she hid nearby under a bed. “She saw her boyfriend get killed,” Franklin Dabbs of North Carolina explained. “Three guys came to the house. She was hiding under the bed. She was two months pregnant then. I think that burden was still with her.”

Franklin said his daughter had changed since the shooting, and always wore sunglasses and wanted to be in dark rooms. However, he said she was once a great mom. “I’m very surprised — she was always a good mother to her baby,” he said. “I’ve seen her clean the baby, feed the baby, everything. I’m speechless, really.”

“I know she’s a good mother,” he added. “I don’t understand what happened. I love both of them. All I want is my kids back in North Carolina with me, especially my grandchild.”

Image via Wikimedia Commons