West Covina woman accused of giving birth, abandoning baby in Subway bathroom

WEST COVINA >> Police arrested a woman Monday after she gave birth and abandoned her baby in the restroom of a Subway, authorities said.

At about 8:34 a.m., a customer saw a bleeding woman leave the bathroom in the sandwich shop located at 2540 S. Azusa Ave., police said. As they followed the blood trail to the bathroom, they heard the cry of a newbo and then saw an umbilical cord hanging out of the toilet, said West Covina police spokesman Rudy Lopez.

“The baby was in the toilet,” Lopez said.

Paramedics rushed the baby to the neonatal intensive care unit at Queen of the Valley Hospital, police said. An update on the baby’s condition was not available.

Officers quickly found the woman nearby behind the Pep Boys Auto Parts & Service shop on Amar Road, just east of Azusa, Lopez said.

The woman, identified as 38-year-old Mary Grace Trinidad, was taken to a hospital for treatment, he said. She was expected to be booked on suspicion of child abandonment, attempted murder and an outstanding narcotics-related warrant.

Lopez said Trinidad is a known local transient to businesses in the neighborhood.

“I’ve done this for 36 years. I thought I had seen everything,” Lopez said. “I have no words to describe how I’m feeling about this.”

Under Califoia’s “Safe Surrender” law, new mothers can tu over their baby’s at any fire station or hospital, no questions asked, within the first 72 hours of birth, so long as the child shows no signs of abuse.

Staff writer Stephanie K. Baer contributed.

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