A disturbing surveillance video footage shows the moments a young New Mexico mother tossed her unwanted newborn into a dumpster. The video, taken outside a New Mexico store, also shows moments rescuers pulled the baby boy to safety five hours later.
“I got a call about 8:30 on Friday, and Hobbs PD said, ‘Hey Joe are your cameras working out back?’” Joe Imbriale, the owner of Rig Outfitters, told Fox News Digital. “They said we have a crime scene.”
Joe said he, at first, thought somebody had broken into the store. However, the surveillance video showed a woman pulling up in a white vehicle at approximately 2 p.m. MT Friday, grabbing a black bag from the backseat and unceremoniously tossing it into the dumpster, and driving off.
Five hours later, a group of people was seen fishing through the dumpster and pulling the baby out, the cameras show. Joe said the rescuers had heard the baby crying inside the dumpster.
During a press conference on Monday afternoon, acting Hobbs Police Chief August Fons stated that the three Good Samaritans were scavenging in the dumpsters looking for anything usable when they heard the cry of a baby inside. They searched carefully and eventually found a trash bag with the baby boy inside.
They pulled the baby, who was wrapped in a dirty, wet towel, out of the trash bag. The chief said the baby was covered in dried blood and with his umbilical cord still attached.
The three good Samaritans were identified by cops as Michael Green, Hector Jasso, and April Nuttall.
Jasso told police that when they heard the crying, they first thought it might have been a kitten. However, he could tell the bag was too heavy as soon as he picked it up.
According to the police report and video of the incident, Nuttall fished the newborn out of the trash bag and immediately cradled him in the towel while Green called 911.
“Their collective quick response to this emergency, including notification of 911, was absolutely pivotal in saving this baby’s life,” Fons said.
Police responded within minutes. Shortly after, investigators contacted Imbriale and asked if they could review his surveillance cameras, according to Fox News Digital Monday.
“They said we’re looking for somebody that dumped a black garbage bag in your dumpster, and I knew right then, I turned to the office and said, ‘Please don’t tell me it’s a baby,’” he said.
The room got emotional, he said, but one of the officers interjected: “The baby’s still alive. Don’t worry.”
After Hobbs police had finished reviewing the video, they charged 18-year-old mother, Alexis Avila, with child abuse and attempted murder. Avila confessed to investigators after she was arrested, cops said. The suspected father’s identity won’t be released by investigators because he is a juvenile, Fons said.
Avila told cops that she did not know she was pregnant until recently when she had abdominal pain and went to the hospital for treatment. She also told investigators that her relationship with the suspected father had ended back in August.
Avila’s mom, Martha Avila, told detectives that the ex-boyfriend allegedly “battered” her daughter in June and that she had banned him from their home as a result of the abuse.
Avila told investigators that she panicked when she gave birth to the child in her parents’ bathroom. She reportedly stuffed the newborn inside two plastic bags, one with other trash, and subsequently dumped it in the bin.
That night, temperatures were hovering around 36 degrees, police said, and the “wind was blowing moderately.”
During her interview with the police, Avila, at all times, referred to the baby as ‘it.’ However, she kept quiet when investigators asked her about what she thought would happen to a baby left in a plastic bag, according to the criminal complaint, obtained by Fox News Digital.
An ambulance transported the baby to the closest hospital. The baby was later flown to another hospital in Lubbock, Texas, where he is in stable condition.
Fifth Judicial District prosecutors said the charges against Avila could be amended once she is arraigned.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, all 50 states have “safe haven” laws that enable newborn children to be safely surrendered to a designated location.
