Nausheen Rahman, 29, an Indian American woman from Staten Island, New York – who is facing murder charges for throwing her newborn baby in the trash shortly after giving birth – said she did not check for breathing before dumping the baby in trash.
Nausheen Rahman reportedly told officers in testimony taped shortly after she was arrested March 13, 2016, that she should have checked for signs of breathing in her infant son. “I was like ‘okay, he’s not crying, is he dead?’ “
The medical examiner has deemed the death a homicide, and Rahman has been charged with second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse. She has denied the allegations.
“It was just my state of mind at the time. I’m like ‘What happened here?’ Then, I’m like, ‘What should I do?’ I was really scared, nervous. I was scared of my dad. ‘What’s going to happen?” And things like that,” Rahman told detectives, as reported by Staten Island Live.
“When I picked it up to put it in the bag, that’s when I saw he’s not breathing,” said Rahman, reportedly incriminating herself by saying she intended to put a live baby into a bag. She told detectives she had immediately gone downstairs in her house after delivering the baby, to get a black garbage bag.
According to reports, Rahman had hidden the pregnancy from her mother and father. Immediately after she was arrested, she asked law enforcement officers: “Are you going to tell my parents?”
An autopsy determined the newborn still had air in its lungs, meaning it was alive at birth. There were also signs that the infant had moved after birth. The pre-trial hearing will determine whether Rahman made her statements voluntarily or was coerced by police.
The young woman told police the father of the baby wanted nothing to do with her, and that she did not know what to do with the newborn infant. Rahman’s parents had been arranging for her marriage to another man. Asked if she had considered an abortion, Rahman said: “There was no plan on that. There was no intention of getting rid of it.”