Sep 8, 2008 8:32 am US/Central
Girl Charged With Abandoning Baby Over Summer
Baby Was Found In Plastic Bag Outside Uptown Building
CHICAGO (STNG) ―
A 15-year-old girl was arrested and charged Sunday for allegedly wrapping her newborn in a plastic bag and leaving the baby outside her Uptown apartment building July 8.
The mother was charged with one count each of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery, according to a Chicago Police release. The girl's name is not being made public because she is a minor.
On July 8, Brandon Shephard, 25, a resident of the building, heard a baby crying as he approached the courtyard of his apartment building in the 4600 block of North Beacon Street and found the baby wrapped in a plastic grocery bag in the bushes about 2:30 a.m.
He didn't have a cell phone and didn't want to waste time getting up to his third-floor apartment, so he picked up the baby and ran to a fire station three blocks away, in the 1500 block of West Wilson Avenue.
Shephard kicked in the door and woke up the firefighters, who rushed the boy to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
"You know, I wanted to follow them after I gave them the baby. My paternal instincts were kicking in," said Shephard, who is single and doesn't have children.
The boy, called 'Baby Wilson' after the street where he was turned in, suffered from hypothermia and a cut lip when Shephard found him.
He was is in serious condition, an Illinois Masonic spokesman said.
Shephard was honored for his actions later in the week by the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation and the Chicago Fire Department.
If Shephard had not brought him in, the baby probably would have died, Fire Capt. Bob Martin said.
"Because of Brandon's heroic actions, a baby is alive today," Martin said.
Belmont Area Detective Jennifer Ryle, herself a mother, located the mother by canvassing the area, releasing community alerts and reaching out to residents via community news Web sites. Police tried to locate the girl numerous times and she finally turned herself in to Belmont Area police Sunday, the release said.
The girl confessed to Ryle that she gave birth to the infant and discarded the newborn boy in the courtyard, the release said.
The infant is currently recovering at an area hospital, the release said.
Shephard, who was adopted when he was 9 months old, said he hopes Baby Wilson will "find a great family that understands him, and he can go to them no matter what."
(Source: Sun-Times News Group Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2008. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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