WATCH: Teen dad filmed abandoning newborn baby in car park
A teenage father has been arrested after he abandoned his two-week-old son in a Northern California parking lot in broad daylight.
Daniel Mitchell, 18, was caught on CCTV driving into a parking lot in Suisun City just before 3.15pm on Monday.
He’s seen removing a child’s car seat from the back, setting it down in the parking lot before driving off.
Suisun City Police said Mitchell was identified after he was arrested trying to flee the scene of a crash in nearby Fairfield, according to the LA Times.
Police interviewed him in hospital about the baby after the crash and arrested and charged him with felony hit-and-run, child endangerment, child abandonment, committing a felony while on bail and possession of suspected cocaine.
Mega Smoke Shop owner Karan Grewal, whose cameras captured the incident, told KCRA 3 seeing the child abandoned was “heartbreaking” and something she’d “never seen” in her life.
Erick Keeton, who works in a nearby barbershop, picked up the child when he saw the boy abandoned and said the baby seemed OK.
“I noticed he had his binky [dummy], he was wrapped up in a blanket," he said.
"He had a diaper on and he appeared to be fine. His tongue was a little white, maybe like he just had a bottle recently."
Police said the baby boy was taken to hospital as a precaution and released into the custody of Child Protective Services.
Suisun City Police previously arrested Mitchell on June 27 on multiple felony charges related to a burglary on Gray Hawk Lane.
They said he was out on bail in connection to that crime when he was seen leaving the baby behind.
The investigations continue.
