Father arrested after baby abandoned in California parking lot
SUISUN CITY, California -- There are new details on the case of a 16-day-old baby left abandoned at a shopping center parking lot in California. The child's father is under arrest after police say surveillance video captured him leaving the scene.
Wendell Cooper is still thinking about the baby he found abandoned in front of his Suisun City barber shop on Monday. Police now say tests at the hospital have revealed the baby has a medical condition and is in critical but stable condition. This has Cooper worried more now than he was when he found him.
"It hit me more when I seen the baby taken to another hospital in critical condition. It bothers me more today," said Wendell Cooper, barber shop owner.
Police say they have arrested the baby's father 18-year-old Daniel Mitchell of Fairfield. They believe he is the man seen on surveillance video leaving the car seat in the parking lot at 3 p.m. Tuesday. When the barber shop employees first saw the car seat, they wanted to believe it was an accident.
"We brought it inside and we waited 10 minutes because we thought they would come back that they forgot the baby and then we went next door and watched the video and seen the guy pull up and set him on the ground," said Cooper.
Now he is anxious for an update.
"I do want to know how he is doing, he was looking to be in good health when he left," said Cooper.
Cooper has pictures of the baby on his phone. He says he plans to keep them, saying maybe the boy will come back one day and he can show him the photos.
"I'll keep that one, I'll keep it. I might meet him when he gets a little older. He will need a haircut -- he had a lot of hair to be 16-days-old, a lot of hair. Hopefully we will meet him when he is one, two-years-old," said Cooper.
California law states that you can leave a baby at a safe surrender spot such as a fire station.
The fire chief of Suisun City said he would have been happy to care for the little boy.
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