Mother charged over abandoned baby in NY subway

A woman rides the subway before the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island in the Brooklyn section of New York on June 21, 2014. A young homeless woman accused of abandoning her baby on a crowded subway platform in the heart of Manhattan was charged in
A woman rides the subway before the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island in the Brooklyn section of New York on June 21, 2014. A young homeless woman accused of abandoning her baby on a crowded subway platform in the heart of Manhattan was charged in a New York court on Tuesday. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

NEW YORK (AFP) - A young homeless woman accused of abandoning her baby on a crowded subway platform in the heart of Manhattan was charged in a New York court on Tuesday.

The little girl, aged 11 months, was left in a stroller at the Columbus Circle station, one of Manhattan's busiest, on Monday.

Frankea Dabbs, 20, pushed the stroller out of a train's sliding doors onto the platform but did not get off herself.

Police described Dabbs as homeless and said she told officers she felt unable to cope with caring for her young daughter.

She appeared before a Manhattan court charged with abandoning a child and acting in a manner injurious to a child.

Police tracked down the woman after appealing for witnesses and broadcasting closed-circuit footage of the woman with the child, and someone came forward to notify officers of her whereabouts.

Elsewhere in New York, a 22-year-old mother was charged with second degree murder over the death of her 11-month-old baby son in Queens.

Nicole Kelly also told investigators that she could no longer cope with looking after the child and smothered him in a sheet, local news channels reported.

Dabbs' daughter is said to be in good health and being looked after by child protection services.

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