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NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who locked herself inside a restaurant bathroom for 25 minutes before she was found holding her unconscious 1-year-old son foaming at the mouth has been arrested on a murder charge, authorities said Tuesday.
Latisha Fisher, 35, told investigators who arrived at the 5 Boro Burger on Monday afternoon that "the devil made me do it," police said. She was later questioned at a midtown Manhattan precinct.
A restaurant worker who entered the bathroom saw Fisher holding her son, Gavriel Ortiz-Fisher, the police said.
Restaurant customers, concerned that Fisher and the child were in the bathroom for too long, contacted workers who used a key to get in, the police said. They then called 911. The boy was in cardiac arrest when he was taken to a hospital, where he died.
It wasn't immediately clear if Fisher had an attorney. A phone number listed at the address provided by police wasn't in service.
An examination conducted Tuesday by the medical examiner was inconclusive and more tests are needed to determine exactly how the child died, a spokeswoman for the office said.
A spokesman for the Administration for Children's Services said in a statement that officials were launching an investigation but were limited in what they could discuss because of privacy laws.
Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters at an unrelated news conference that Gavriel's death was a "horrible tragedy."
"As a human being, as a parent, this one grabs at me. This is profoundly troubling," he said.
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