An 18-year-old mother was charged with attempted murder after authorities said she left her newborn child alive in a New Mexico dumpster.
Police received calls about a baby in a dumpster at 8 p.m. on Friday in the 1400 block of N. Thorp in Hobbs, a city located in the southeast corner of the state near the Texas border.
Upon arriving to the scene, officers found the child and rendered aid, Hobbs police said Sunday in a news release. The baby was taken to a hospital, then subsequently transferred to another in Lubbock, Texas, for further treatment.
The child was stable, according to the release.
In an interview with Alexis Avila, the baby’s mother, police said the teen confessed to giving birth to the child at another location and placing the newborn in the dumpster.
She was arrested and charged with attempted murder and felony child abuse.
She is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday in Lea County District Court.
Harrowing video surveillance footage of the incident shared with NBC affiliate KOB of Albuquerque shows a woman, believed to be Avila, tossing a plastic bag into the dumpster. Hours later, three people are seen in the footage searching through the same dumpster, pulling out the bag, realizing a baby is inside and tending to the child. Police and an ambulance arrive, and the child is taken to the hospital.
Joe Imbriale, the owner of Rig Outfitters and Home Store, said police came to him Friday night requesting that surveillance footage, which was caught on his camera.
“I was in shock just to see this,” he told KOB. “I can’t sleep at night just knowing that this baby was just tossed in a dumpster like that. I’m sorry but who does that? That is evil. I don’t have words for it.”