Baby Boy

Two San Diego police officers got more than they bargained for Wednesday when they were flagged down by a woman who did not speak English and wound up delivering another woman's baby inside a parked van, police said. Patrol officers Robert Lewis, 29, and Raphael Cimmarrusti, 24, went to the van in the 1500 block of Imperial Avenue, where they saw that Juana Perez, 22, of Encanto, was about to have a baby.

A 17-year-old girl was arrested on charges of smothering her 7-month-old boy. The girl called paramedics Monday, several hours after the baby had been smothered, police said. Officers went to the home on West 67th Street and arrested her, police said. She is being held at a juvenile detention center in lieu of $1-million bail. Police have not released details about the girl's motive.

A welfare agency in Ft. Lauderdale was granted temporary custody of a baby boy born to a mentally ill woman who refused to have a court-ordered abortion. The Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services hoped to eventually place the infant with one of the mother's relatives, a spokesman said. Broward County Judge John Miller granted the agency temporary custody of Michael LeFebvre, the child born last week to Denise LeFebvre, 29.

An autopsy is pending in the death of a baby boy whose body was found inside a plastic bag floating in the ocean off Long Beach, police said Monday. Two swimmers discovered the bag about 2 p.m. Sunday near the beach at Junipero Avenue. They opened the plastic and found a newborn inside with his umbilical cord still attached. Authorities said it appeared that the infant was delivered prematurely and then quickly disposed of.

A jetliner that left Los Angeles with 243 passengers on Friday wound up landing in Albuquerque with 244. The Delta Air Lines flight, destined for Atlanta, made an unscheduled landing in the New Mexico city after passenger Joella Sison gave birth. Passengers applauded when the flight crew announced that a baby was born 40 minutes into the flight, Delta spokeswoman Jackie Pate said. Sison and her husband, Richard, were flying home to Atlanta with their other two children.

A newborn boy in the care of Arrowhead Regional Medical Center was in good condition Tuesday, one day after he was left with hospital staff by an anonymous man, hospital officials said. The boy is the first child to be abandoned at the Colton hospital since a 2001 law allowed parents to drop off an unwanted child up to 3 days old at a hospital emergency room without fear of prosecution. Under the law, parents have up to 14 days to petition the courts to regain custody of the infant.

An 8-month-old boy died Friday afternoon after he fell from the balcony of a second-story apartment in Anaheim, authorities said. Randy Davila, who had been left in the care of a baby-sitter, went through a railing and landed on his head after falling about 24 feet, said Kent Mastain, a division chief for the Anaheim Police Department. The fall happened at 1617 S. Walnut St. at 2:43 p.m., Mastain said. Paramedics performed CPR on the child, who was unconscious and struggling to breathe, he said.

Minette Sheller, the pregnant Reseda mail carrier whose postal patrons had rooted with her for a baby boy, has indeed delivered the male. Stephen Nicholas McNally was born Saturday. Both she and the 8-pound, 10-ounce boy are doing fine, Sheller said Monday. Sheller attracted attention along her Vanowen Street route when she borrowed a bulky male co-worker's uniform so she could continue working up to two weeks before the baby's due date.

The baby boy was ready to arrive, and he did. Tuesday morning, lying between the seats on a Metropolitan Transportation Authority Line 20 bus downtown, a Los Angeles woman received help from a bus driver to deliver a healthy baby boy. Susana Millan and her newborn, Juan Jose, were in good condition later at California Hospital Medical Center, said Katreena Salgado, a hospital spokeswoman.

FBI and police investigators began a search Saturday for a baby boy kidnaped by a gunman from the Pacific Palisades home of his adoptive parents in what appeared to be a custody dispute involving the natural parents, authorities said. The 13-month-old boy was abducted Friday evening after the gunman broke into the home while the child was under the care of a baby sitter, Los Angeles police Cmdr. William Booth reported.