LOS ANGELES, CA — The mother of a 4-month-old girl found in a South Los Angeles trash bin was arrested on suspicion of murder Tuesday, according to police.
Officers responded around 10:30 p.m. Monday to the 5200 block of Alba Street after receiving a call about an infant found inside a trash can, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Officers found the baby unresponsive inside the bin. Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics took her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to police.
Detectives with the LAPD Juvenile Division's Abused Child Section investigated and identified the girl's biological mother, 19-year-old Los Angeles resident Takiyah Babers, as the suspect, police said.
Babers was taken into custody without incident and booked on suspicion of murder. Her bail was set at $2 million, according to the LAPD.
Babers was initially detained Tuesday morning and arrested later in the day after questioning
KTLA reported that the infant was found wrapped in a blanket near East 52nd Street and Holmes Avenue, across from Holmes Avenue Elementary School. A woman who discovered the baby told the station she initially thought the child was a doll.
Babers' foster parents, Herman Johnson and Laura Lacy, told reporters that Babers' account of the baby's whereabouts changed Tuesday morning. Johnson told Fox 11 that Babers first said the child was sleeping, then said the baby was with her father.
"That was the sweetest little baby in the world. To be found in a dumpster, dirty dumpster, it just broke my heart," Johnson said. "I don't know what to do. I don't even know what to say."
Police have not said how the child died or disclosed a possible motive.
The case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for filing consideration, according to the LAPD.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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