A man abandoned a newborn baby girl near a Texas road on a hot Saturday morning, officials said.
The baby was “just born this morning,” police said during a press conference. She was found in Katy, about 30 kilometers west of Houston, around 9 a.m. by a couple out for a walk with their son and their dogs. The newborn was wrapped in a towel.
The couple who saw the baby left early to try to avoid the heat, Daniela Fedele told CBS News affiliate KHOU. Their 3-year-old daughter was riding her bike toward the newborn when they noticed the baby wrapped in a towel.
“I noticed two feet moving and then my husband was behind me with the dogs, and I called my husband. I said, 'Oh my God, a baby, a baby,'” Fedele told KHOU. “And then she said to my husband, 'call 911, call 911,' and that's what we did.”
The newborn baby girl was born premature and still had the umbilical cord attached, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said on social media. She was taken to a hospital for treatment and was described as being in a stable condition.
“The boy was not out in these elements, which is very hot right now, for a long time,” said Sgt. Juan García said during a press conference.
Fedele told KHOU she couldn't understand why anyone would abandon a baby.
“That image has gone through my head so many times, and it's like, how can you do that? I was shocked, I was mad, I was upset,” Fedele said.
Gonzalez said the man believed to have left the baby on a trailhead bridge in Katy was young. He is described as thin, with a fair complexion and black hair. The man was wearing a black shirt and possibly gray pants.
The man who abandoned the newborn could face charges of child endangerment and abandonment, police said. Texas has a safe haven law that allows people to drop off an unharmed child without fear of being prosecuted for abandonment.
