When You Realize Who’s Inside the Bag He’s Trying to Sneak Out of a Hospital, You Will Be One Step Ahead of the Staffers

Jason Bristol had just learned that Arizona welfare workers were coming to the hospital to take custody of his 2-day-old infant found with methamphetamine, morphine and marijuana in her system, Glendale police said.

So Dad hatched an escape plot.

Image source: KTVK-TV

Police said Bristol placed the infant in a bag and covered her with blankets. He was seen in a surveillance video released this week holding the bag while trying to leave the floor at the Banner Thunderbird Medical Center.

But Bristol found the doors locked and an alarm going off. Why? Hospital spokesman Jeff Nelson told TheBlaze that the door Bristol pushed was a fire door, which triggered an alarm.

Image source: KTVK-TV

Soon a hospital staffer approached him. But because she didn't realize Bristol's newborn was in the bag, she used a swipe card to turn off the alarm.

He was told to use a regular door instead of the fire door.

Then Dad tried opening a different door — and an alarm went off again.

This time two staffers approached Bristol. So was the jig finally up?

No. A key card was swiped again, and the staffers went about their business.

In the meantime, police said the infant in the bag was in danger of suffocation.

Image source: KTVK-TV

Finally Bristol found himself alone in the hallway, took a look under the cover but left the infant in the bag — even taking half a minute to lean against a wall with the bag on the floor behind him.

Image source: KTVK-TV

He then approached the previously locked fire door, found it unlocked and headed for the lobby and the hospital exit.

Nelson said the fire door automatically unlocks a short period of time after an initial attempt to open it and Bristol waited long enough for that to occur.

Contrary to some news reports, Nelson added that the initial alarms Bristol triggered had nothing to do with the electronic band on the infant's ankle.

Jason Bristol (Image source: KTVK-TV)

Nelson noted that a "code pink" alarm typically goes off once an infant wearing the band leaves a floor without authorization — and all bags are checked at all exits — but in this case an interference issue related to Bristol's previous use of the alarmed doors prevented that. So Bristol was able to get down the steps and through the lobby between 90 seconds and two minutes before a staffer noticed the baby missing.

Nelson said the hospital has made some adjustments to the code pink alarm so that it goes off when an infant comes near an exit, not just past it.

The staffers on the floor with Bristol did what they were supposed to do, he said.

Before the Feb. 21 incident, the infant's mother left the hospital without being discharged. Glendale police told TheBlaze that before the surveillance video was examined, it was determined that the couple committed no crime since they hadn't yet been served by child protective services.

But after the video was examined, Bristol, 33, was arrested and charged Feb. 26 with one count of child abuse and one count of drug possession, KNXV-TV reported. According to KSAZ-TV, Bristol had a small amount of meth on him at the time of his arrest. Police wouldn't comment on when or where the infant was found, only that she is safe.

Police said the infant was born at a house in Youngtown, about 10 miles northwest of Glendale, and then hospitalized. According to the police report, Bristol and the mother "knew the child was going to be removed from them, so he wanted to get out of the hospital."

Bristol and the mother were living in a room inside the home of a friend who told KNXV they "knew they were going to lose the baby, so they wanted a couple days when it was brand new to bond with it."

FOX 10 News | fox10phoenix.com

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