Witnesses said a woman gave birth to a baby boy on the frigid sidewalk in Omaha, Nebraska, and abandoned him to the cold.
The alarming incident unfolded on Sunday at about 10 a.m.
Latrell Crane told KETV-TV that she witnessed the entire incident and that she tried to help the baby after the mother gave birth.
She said that other bystanders rushed into help the mother by gathering blankets to wrap her up.
“She was cold. She was in pain. She was crying,” Crane said.
Crane said she ran to a nearby business to call the police for help. When she came back, she said the baby was not breathing with the umbilical cord still attached as he lay on the cold sidewalk.
She said that the mother wrapped a blanket around her waist and walked off while Crane attended to the baby.
“I shook his chest,” she said. “‘Come on, baby. Come on, come on, come on.’ And he said, ‘Wah, oh, wah.’”
Police said they found the mother behind a home near the incident. They rushed the baby to the Nebraska Medical Center in critical condition.
“I have two kids of my own, two boys. And she just left him on the sidewalk. It’s not cool. It’s not cool at all, man. I was the one that saved him,” Crane said.
The baby was exposed for at least 5 minutes to the freezing 15 degree temperature.
Police are looking for video and other witnesses to determine exactly what happened on Sunday.
The mother was later identified as 27-year-old Trinity Shakespeare. She faces one count of felony child abuse.
The baby is in protective custody, and prosecutors are filing a petition to make him a ward of the state.
Here’s a local news video about the astounding incident:
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