Mother-Of-Two Ran Away After Delivering Newborn On Frigid Sidewalk, Friendly Stranger Saves Boy

A Nebraska mother-of-two who gave birth on a sidewalk and then ran away leaving the baby in below-freezing temperatures has been booked on charges of felony child abuse, police said.

Trinity Shakespeare was arrested on child abuse charges after she allegedly abandoned her newborn son in temperatures as low as 15-degrees Fahrenheit (-9.4 Celsius).

According to a police report, Shakespeare allegedly gave birth to the child on a frigid sidewalk in the area of 24th and P streets at around 10 a.m on Feb. 13.

Shakespeare reportedly ran away when a dutiful citizen, who was trying to help, left the scene to call the police.

The mother was long gone by the time police arrived.

Luckily, the newborn was watched over by a stranger who kept the baby alive while she waited for the emergency response teams to arrive.

"Yesterday was wrong," witness Latrell Crane told local ABC affiliate KETV. "She came up over here, right? She was cold. She was in pain. She was crying and I know her."

Crane said she and other onlookers quickly gathered blankets they could find and wrapped the mother up in them.

That's when she sprinted to a nearby business to call the police but when she returned she was astonished to see the newborn lying still in the notoriously freezing cold.

"I come over and the baby is on the sidewalk. Just in the fetal position, not breathing. Her umbilical cord still attached. And then ... it's just my instinct because I have two kids in my own, right? I grabbed a umbilical cord and wrapped around my hand," Crane said.

"I shook his chest," she said. "'Come on, baby. Come on, come on, come on.’ And he said, ‘Wah, oh, wah.'"

Emergency services then rushed the boy to the hospital where he is currently recovering, according to police reports obtained by the news outlet.

The 27-year-old mother was later located by police, roughly a block away from the scene of the birth near the back of a home.

Omaha Fire Battalion Chief Scott Fitzpatrick said the mother was "adamant that we leave her alone and she did not need any medical help".

She was released from the Nebraska Medical Center and booked into the Douglas County Jail at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Omaha police said.

Authorities have not publicly identified the newborn's father.

According to court records, Shakespeare had lost custody of two other children — a boy born in 2016 and a girl in 2017, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

The children remained in protective custody while their mother spent 200 days in jail for child abuse by neglect.

She reportedly walked away after leaving the children with a self-described "drunk", who was not their father.

"Here you go," Shakespeare told him as she abandoned the children back in August 2018, according to juvenile court filings.

Crane, another mother-of-two, said she cried all day Sunday because of the "traumatizing" experience.

"I have two kids. My own two boys. That she just left him on the sidewalk, it's not cool. It's not cool at all. I was the one that saved him," Crane said.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said his office would seek to take custody of the newborn and deem him a ward of the state.