Girl gives birth, then abandons baby at Jersey City restaurant

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    Jersey City- A girl who apparently had just given birth to a baby girl walked into a Jersey City restaurant Wednesday afternoon, handed the newborn to a customer and then fled, a restaurant employee told The Jersey Journal.

    Frankie Aguilar, an employee of El Patron on the corner of Kennedy Boulevard and Linden Avenue, said the girl — who police said in radio transmissions is 14 years old — entered the restaurant at approximately 4 p.m. with a “brand new newborn child” asking for help.

    “She kind of looked a little bit desperate,” Aguilar said, noting that he was working in the front of the restaurant when she arrived. El Patron staff called the police, he said, but the woman departed before they came.

    “Once she handed the baby to someone else, one of our customers, she just left,” Aguilar said. The baby, who had the umbilical cord still attached, was put in an ambulance and taken to the Jersey City Medical Center.
    A Jersey City spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for more information, but police said in radio transmissions that the mother was located in the area of Linden Avenue and Old Bergen Road, not far from the restaurant. The mother, who initially denied being the baby’s mother, was also taken to the Jersey City Medical Center.
    New Jersey has a Safe Haven Infant Protection law, which allows an individual to give up an unwanted infant safely, legally and anonymously. The parents, or someone acting on their behalf, can leave an unharmed baby less than 30 days old with staff at any hospital emergency room, police station, fire stationambulance, first aid or rescue squad.
    Jersey City Police Officer Ameer Alateek hands off a baby to a Jersey City Medical Center EMT Wednesday afternoon, May 19, 2021, after a girl believed to be the mother handed her to a customer in the El Patron restaurant and fled.

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