Woman charged after burned infant found alive in Connecticut trash bin
10/13/2020 8:33 am PDT
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (TCD) --
A Connecticut woman was charged after an 8-month-old girl was found with burn injuries in a dumpster on Monday, New Haven Police said Tuesday.
Andiana Velez, 24, of Hamden, Conn., was charged with risk of injury to a child, second-degree assault and first-degree reckless endangerment. She was held on $250,000 bail. After a court appearance Tuesday, Velez's bond was doubled to $500,000, WTIC-TV reports.
The child was found in a dumpster in New Haven on Monday, police said. Velez allegedly assaulted the baby's 21-year-old mother earlier Monday, police said.
The infant remained hospitalized, police said Tuesday. Velez is believed to have been the girl's babysitter. Police said investigators have not determined who burned the child.
New Haven Police and the Connecticut Department of Children and Families are continuing to investigate.
WTIC reports court documents state police responded to Best Gas on Ella T Grasso Blvd. for a report of a missing baby in a car on Monday. A frantic woman told officers that Velez had stabbed with a large butcher knife while Velez was filling the car up with gas. The mother reportedly had small wounds on her face.
Velez was reportedly recorded on a gas station surveillance camera driving off with the baby in her car. While police were looking for Velez and the car she was in, they received a call of a baby in the dumpster on Dixwell Avenue.
Velez told police she suggested the mother take her baby to the hospital after seeing the burns on her hands, but said the mother begged her not to say anything about the burns and if she did, she would blame it on Velez. That led to the stabbing, WTIC reports, and Velez stated she was going to bring the baby to the hospital. Since she was told not to say anything by the mother, she said she became afraid and put the baby in the dumpster where she knew the baby would be found. Velez later reportedly confessed to police she put the baby in the dumpster.
The New Haven Register reports the baby girl was found with burns on her hands in a dumpster outside of the Presidential Gardens apartment complex on Dixwell Ave. about 2 p.m. Monday.
The man who heard the baby in the dumpster told the Register he had been throwing away his trash when he heard a noise. He initially thought it was a cat; it turned out to be the baby crying.
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