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Mother Arrested For Allegedly Leaving Baby With Homeless Couple In Downtown LA

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A woman was arrested Tuesday morning for allegedly abandoning her baby in downtown Los Angeles.

She is accused of leaving the child with a homeless couple at the corner of Third and Main at 12:30 a.m.

"I was just sleeping in my tent with my boyfriend and then we were woken up by a lady who was shaking our tent and trying to unzip it," a woman who cared for the baby told CBS2's Kara Finnstrom.

"All I was trying to do was just help him, you know, 'cause he's kind of sick, so I was trying to pat his back, get up what he had to get up. You know, just try to keep him comfortable, you know, because the baby don't like being by himself."

The homeless woman's boyfriend says the baby's mother appeared to be running from someone.

"Some lady ran into our tent, handed us the baby saying, 'They're after us, they're after us!' Then just took off saying she was going to come back with a bottle. She never returned so we called 911 because we didn't know what else to do."

Arriving officers also attempted to soothe the child and even changed his diaper.

The baby's mother and father were both detained after she apparently flagged officers down. The father was released after being questioned, but the mother is facing child endangerment charges.

The child is now in the custody of protective services.

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