Wave Staff and Wire Reports
SOUTH LOS ANGELES — A 19-year-old woman suspected of leaving her dead 4-month-old infant in a dumpster may soon face criminal charges after making her first court appearance Oct. 1.
Takiyah Babers was arrested a few feet from where the baby’s body was found on suspicion of murder Sept. 29 after being questioned by Los Angeles Police Department officers.
She was being held in lieu of $2 million bail at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department inmate records.
The community responded to the infant’s death by creating a spontaneous memorial at the scene. Dozens of candles were lit, flowers were placed and balloons were tied to the dumpster where the baby was found.
Police detained Babers while investigating the discovery of the infant in the 5200 block of Alba Street. The baby was found unresponsive around 10:30 p.m. Sept. 28.
Community activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson called the incident horrific and an atrocity while urging city officials to publicize the baby safe surrender law which allows mothers of unwanted children to turn them over to authorities.
“The horrific abandonment murder of a baby in a trash bin should be a wake up call for officials to ensure there is no repeat of this atrocity,” Hutchinson said. “City officials should use all means to publicize the baby protection law.”
The law, approved by the state Legislature in 2006, allows a mother of a newborn to surrender her baby to authorities within 72 hours of birth.
The law may not have applied in this situation since the baby in this case was 4 months old.
Babers was detained Sept. 29 by officers investigating the discovery of the infant in the 5200 block of Alba Street. The baby was found unresponsive around 10:30 p.m. Sept. 28.
Paramedics took the girl to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Police did not immediately identify her, but her foster grandparents told reporters at the scene that her name was Luna.
“This case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for filing consideration,” the LAPD said in a statement that identified Babers as the biological mother of the victim. It was not immediately clear how the baby died or what the motive may have been.
“That was the sweetest little baby in the world,” Herman Johnson, Babers’ foster father, told Fox11. “To be found in a dumpster, dirty dumpster, it just broke my heart. I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know what to say.”
Johnson said he questioned Babers after learning that a baby had been found in a trash bin. He said she initially told him the baby was sleeping, then said the infant was at the baby’s father’s home, which also proved untrue.
Babers’ foster mother, Laura Lacy, told reporters she “had no idea (Babers) was feeling that way to discard” the baby.
No court date has been scheduled for Babers.
Donations to a GoFundMe account to help defray funeral and burial expenses can be made at: .www.gofundme.com/f/a-beautiful-home-going-for-baby-luna?attribution_id=sl:0daa00e6-44e8-4d66-b87b-2d3ee7700198&lang=en_US&ts=1790735055&utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_content=amp30-treatment-4&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=email.
