A mother hurled her 18-day-old baby girl into a snowbank in south Minneapolis Saturday morning, horrified witnesses told police.
The 21-year-old mother was arrested and is expected to face charges of child neglect and endangerment, said Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. William Palmer.
"I think you can only call it bad judgment on the mother's part, given what the temperature conditions were," he said. "She made a decision that was completely inappropriate."
The infant, who was wearing only a T-shirt and a blanket in 16-degree weather, was treated for exposure at Hennepin County Medical Center. She was to be released to protective custody after her condition stabilized.
At the time she was taken to the hospital, her body's core temperature was 95 degrees, Palmer said, adding, "It was initially life-threatening." That temperature is generally considered to be low enough to trigger hypothermia.
The woman and a man were fighting near their home in the 1800 block of 11th Avenue S. shortly after 8 a.m. when the man fled and the woman followed him, police said.
About a block north of their residence, at a bridge crossing Interstate 94, the woman threw the child into the snowbank.
A man who was getting off a Metro Transit bus called 911 when he saw what had happened. He took the baby out of the snowbank, but the mother snatched her from his arms and began walking back home.
